The Acadiana Advocate 02-11-2026

MAHA supporters back Letlow in Senate race

Trumpstands at the podium with Rep.Julia Letlow, R-Baton

duringthe Congressional

in December.Letlow, whohas Trump’sendorsement in her runfor the U. S. Senate, has also

the MakeAmerica Healthy Again movement

BY MARKBALLARD Staff writer

WASHINGTON Afterayear of tension between U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.over vaccines, supporters of Kennedy’sMake America Healthy Again movementare backing U.S. Rep. JuliaLetlow’scampaign to unseat Cassidy Tony Lyons, president of the Make America Healthy Again Center, which also runs apolitical action committee called MAHA Action Inc., said this week thathis group is donating $1 million to help elect Letlow,the Republican from the

Phototaken thenight shedisappeared

BY TY O’NEIL andJOHN SEEWER

Associated Press

TUCSON, Ariz. Amasked person with

ahandgun holster was caughtoncamera outsideNancy Guthrie’sfrontdoor thenight shedisappeared,imagesreleased Tuesday by the FBI show,offering the first major break in acase that has gripped the nation for morethan aweek.

The personwearing abackpack and aski mask canbeseeninone of the videos tilting theirhead down and

Monroearea who now lives in Baton Rougeand is challengingthe reelection of Cassidy,R-Baton Rouge.

Thegroup planstoback Republican candidates who support Kennedy’sMakeAmerica HealthyAgain agenda in theNovember congressional elections, Lyon said. Letlow is the first congressionalcandidatethe group has endorsed.

“Wefound that there really are points of contact with her thatare really going to be impressive to the MAHA movement as they get to know her better,” Lyon saidata Heritage Foundation event Monday,

ä See LETLOW, page 4A

away from adoorbell camera while nearing anarchway at the homeofthe mother of “Today”show hostSavannah Guthrie.

Thefootage showsthe person holdinga flashlight in their mouth and trying to cover the camera with agloved hand and part of aplantrippedfrom her yard. Thevideos— lessthana combined minutein length —gave investigators and the publictheir first glimpse of who was outside Nancy Guthrie’shome just outside Tucson, but theimages did not show what happened to her or help determine whetherthe 84-year-old is still alive.

FBIDirectorKashPatel said the

ASSOCIATED

Sen.Bill Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge, left, greets SecretaryofHealth and Human Services RobertF.Kennedy Jr.before ahearing in May.

“armed individual” appeared to “have tampered with thecamera.” Thevideos werepulled from dataon“backend systems”after investigators spent days trying to find lost, corrupted or inaccessible images, Patel said. “This will get thephoneringing for lots of potential leads,” said former FBIagent KatherineSchweit.“Even when youhave aperson who appears to be completely covered,they’re really not. Youcan see their girth, the shape of their face, potentially their eyes or mouth.You can see agait that people around that person may recognize immediately.”

ä See PORCH, page 6A

Governor names Emerson chiefofstaff

BY TYLER BRIDGES Staff writer

State Rep. Julie Emerson is giving up her senior position in the House to take on an even moreimportant role as Gov.JeffLandry’schief of staff, the Governor’sOffice announced Tuesday Emerson, 37, will take over next week from Kyle Ruckert, who is leaving to oversee an outside political group that’sworking for Landry’s reelection next year “Julie Emerson is aproven leader witha deep understanding of Louisiana’speople, our State legislature, and the work that needs to be done to moveLouisiana forward,” Landry said in astatement. “Her experience andcommitmenttoconservative reform makes herthe perfect person to

Carencro legislator giving up senior position in House ä See EMERSON, page 6A

BY CLAIRE TAYLOR Staff writer

Lafayette could be celebrating the opening of the new Northeast Regional Library

U.S.-Canada bridge brouhaha deepens

WASHINGTON The White House says President Donald Trump has the right to amend a permit for a new bridge between Canada and Michigan, prolonging the latest dispute between the U.S and its northern neighbor hours after its prime minister signaled there could be a detente.

The Gordie Howe International Bridge, which would connect Ontario and Michigan and would be a vital economic artery between the two countries, is scheduled to open this year. But Trump has now threatened to block the bridge from being opened, calling for Canada to agree to a litany of unspecified demands.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said earlier Tuesday he spoke with Trump and expressed confidence that the spat would be resolved But a White House official later Tuesday said the ownership structure of the bridge remains unacceptable for the U.S. president.

Flag at Stonewall monument removed

NEWYORK The Trump administration has stopped flying a rainbow flag at the Stonewall National Monument, angering activists who see the change as a symbolic swipe at the country’s first national monument to LGBTQ+ history

The multicolored flag, one of the world’s most well known emblems of LGBTQ+ rights, was quietly removed in recent days from a flagpole on the National Park Service-run site, which centers on a tiny park in Manhattan. It’s across the street from the Stonewall Inn, the gay bar where patrons’ rebellion against a police raid helped catalyze the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement.

The park service said it’s complying with recent guidance that clarifies longstanding flag policies and applies them consistently. A Jan. 21 park service memo largely restricts the agency to flying the flags of the United States, the Department of the Interior and the POW/MIA flag.

LGBTQ+ rights activists including Ann Northrop don’t buy the explanation. “It’s just a disgusting slap in the face,” she said. Passport revocations for child support to expand

WASHINGTON Parents who owe a significant amount of child support soon could lose their ability to travel internationally as the Trump administration expands and steps up enforcement of a 30-year-old law that allows the federal government to revoke American passports until payments are made, three U.S. officials told The Associated Press.

While passport revocations for unpaid child support of more than $2,500 have been permitted under 1996 federal legislation, the State Department had in the past acted only when someone applied to renew their travel document or sought other consular services. In other words, enforcement depended on the person approaching the department for assistance.

Starting soon, however the department will begin to revoke passports on its own initiative based on data shared with it by the Health and Human Services Department, according to the U.S. officials familiar with the plan.

Syria joins anti-Islamic State coalition

BEIRUT — The U.S.-led international coalition to fight the Islamic State group has welcomed Syria in the fight against the extremists, saying the priorities include the swift transfer of IS detainees to Iraq and third-country repatriation of families linked to IS held in two camps in Syria. The State Department also welcomed a recent ceasefire that ended fighting between Syrian government forces and the U.S.backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces that were a main force in the fight against IS in Syria. Representatives from Syria — which officially joined the global coalition against IS in November during a historic visit by Syria’s President Ahmad al-Sharaa’s to Washington — attended a meeting on Monday of some officials from the 90-member coalition in Saudi Arabia.

ICE chief defends his officers’ actions

Officials pressed by Congress on protesters’ deaths

BY REBECCA SANTANA and LISA MASCARO Associated Press

WASHINGTON Todd Lyons, the acting head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, defended his agency’s officers before Congress on Tuesday, standing behind their tactics and saying they would not be intimidated as they carry out the president’s mass deportation plans.

Lyons was one of the three heads of agencies implementing President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda to testify in a hearing called after the shooting deaths of two Americans at the hands of federal officers. They faced fierce questioning from Democrats, and support from most Republicans, over how they are prosecuting immigration enforcement inside American cities.

“Let me send a message to anyone who thinks they can intimidate us. You will fail,” said Lyons, who blamed elected officials and protesters for escalating rhetoric that he said endangered his officers. Lyons, who at various points declined to comment directly on the killings of the two U.S. citizens, said his officers would not be deterred.

“We are only getting started,” he said in opening remarks. Trump’s immigration campaign has been heavily scrutinized in recent weeks, especially after the shooting deaths in Minneapolis The agencies have also faced criticism for a wave of policies that detractors say trample on the rights of both immigrants facing arrest and Americans protesting the enforcement actions. Tuesday’s testimony is unlikely to quell simmering tensions over the centerpiece policy of Trump’s second term Lyons, the acting ICE director, Rodney Scott, who heads U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and Joseph Edlow, who is the director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, spoke in front of the House Committee on Homeland Security in a hearing that lasted roughly three and a half hours.

This is the first time all three have appeared in Congress since the department received a huge infusion of money from Congress last summer and since immigration enforcement operations intensified across the country

Under Lyons’ leadership, ICE has undergone a massive hiring boom

and immigration officers have deployed in beefed-up enforcement operations designed to increase arrests and deportations.

The officials spoke at a time of falling public support for how their agencies are carrying out Trump’s immigration vision. Their testimony comes as Democratic lawmakers in Congress are demanding restraints on immigration officers before agreeing to fund the Department of Homeland Security The agency heads warned the country would be less safe if federal funds expire at the end of the week

Tuesday’s hearing was called after federal officers shot and killed Alex Pretti and Renee Good, which sparked outrage across the country and demands for accountability and reform. Lyons and Scott said standard operating procedures were being followed in investigations into the January shootings.

Tensions flared and the hearing sparked heated exchanges — the Democrats comparing the enforcement operations to Nazi Germany and questioning how the administration officials will be judged — the chairman at times gaveling the lawmakers back to order

Strike kills 2 cyclists in Gaza as death toll mounts

BY WAFAA SHURAFA and EDNA TARIGAN Associated Press

DEIRAL-BALAH,Gaza Strip An Israeli drone strike killed two Palestinians on bicycles Tuesday, hospital officials said, marking the latest deaths since an October ceasefire that hasn’t halted deadly attacks in the Gaza Strip.

Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital said the two men were hit near the ceasefire line that divides Gaza, with one half under Israeli military control. They were hit in eastern Deir al-Balah, the hospital said, adding that it also received the body of a woman who was killed by Israeli gunfire in central Maghazi refugee camp.

Israel’s military did not immediately respond to questions about either strike.

It has previously said its forces respond to ceasefire violations or attacks on its soldiers.

Gaza’s Health Ministry on Tuesday reported 586 Palestinians had been killed since the start of the ceasefire, bringing the cumulative toll to 72,037 killed since the start of Israel’s offensive. The ministry, which is part of the Hamas-led government, maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts. But it does not give a breakdown of civilians and militants. Deadly Israeli strikes have repeatedly disrupted the truce since it took effect on Oct. 10. The escalating Palestinian toll has prompted many in Gaza to say it feels like the war has continued unabated

Yet parts of the agreement outlined in last year’s ceasefire are moving forward.

After a chaotic first week, officials say more Palestinians are entering and leaving Gaza for Egypt via the reopened Ra-

Palestinians

fah crossing. Plans for an international peacekeeping force meant to provide security in Gaza are also beginning to take shape.

Indonesia — the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country — said Tuesday that its military had begun training personnel to serve in Gaza, specifically for reconstruction and humanitarian response. Its army chief of staff said between 5,000 and 8,000 troops were preparing to deploy Vahd Nabyl Achmad Mulachela, a spokesperson for Indonesia’s Foreign Affairs Ministry, said Indonesian troops would not take part in disarmament — one of the most contentious and unresolved elements of the peace plan.

Indonesia’s President Prabowo Subianto told the U.N. General Assembly in October that his country planned to contribute troops, even as details about the force’s role and mandate was unclear

BY KATE BRUMBACK, ERIC TUCKER and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER Associated Press

ATLANTA The FBI obtained a search warrant to seize hundreds of boxes of ballots from election offices in Fulton County, Georgia, as part of a criminal investigation into possible “deficiencies or defects” in the vote count in the 2020 contest lost by President Donald Trump, according to an affidavit unsealed Tuesday

The affidavit provides the first public justification for an FBI search last month that targeted a county that Trump and allies have long seen as central to their false claim that the 2020 election was stolen. The investigation, based on a referral from a Trump administration official, rests on claims that have long been made by people who assert widespread fraud in the contest even though audits, state officials, courts and Trump’s own former attorney general have all rejected the idea of widespread problems that could have altered the outcome. The investigation began with a referral from Kurt Olsen who served as Trump’s 2020 campaign lawyer when it lost dozens of lawsuits challenging the election and now serves as an administration official overseeing the attempt to investigate Trump’s loss, according to the affidavit. The search of the heavily Democratic county stirred immediate concerns among Democrats that Trump was marshaling the powers of the FBI and Justice Department to pursue retribution over his persistent claims of a stolen election and because of the unusual presence of Tulsi Gabbard, the country’s director of national intelligence. The affidavit makes no mention of any evidence of foreign interference in the 2020 election even though the possibility of such meddling has been a longstanding conspiracy theory among Trump supporters who question the 2020 vote count.

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Walz says operationin Minn.could endindays

BY STEVE KARNOWSKI Associated Press

MINNEAPOLIS

Gov.Tim

Walz said Tuesday that he expects the federal immi gratio n crackdown in Minnesota will end in “days, not weeks and month s,” based on his recent conversations with top Trump administration officials.

The Democratic governor said at anews conference that he spoke Monday with border czar TomHoman and with White House chief of staff SusieWiles on Tuesday morning. Homan took over the Minnesotaoperation in late January after the second fatal shooting by federal officers and amid growing political backlash

andquestionsabout how the operation was beingrun.

“We’re very much in a trust but verify mode,” Walz said.Headded that he expected to hear more from the administration “in the next dayorso” aboutthe future of what he said has been an “occupation” anda “retribution campaign” against the state

While Walz said he’shopeful at the moment because “every indication Ihave is that this thing is winding up,” he addedthat things couldchange

“It would be my hope that Mr.Homan goes out before Friday and announces that this thing is done, and they’re bringing her downand they’rebringing her down in days,” Walz said. “That would bemyexpectation.”

Officials with the Department of Homeland Security did notimmediately reply to arequest forcommenton

thegovernor’sremarks

Walz said he has no reason not to believe Homan’s statement last week that 700 federal officers would leave Minnesota immediately, but thegovernor added that still left 2,300 on Minnesota’sstreets. Homan at the time cited an “increase in unprecedented collaboration”resulting in theneed for fewer federal officers in Minnesota, includinghelp fromjails thatholdinmates who could be deported.

The governoralso indicated that he expects the state will get“cooperation on jointinvestigations” into the shooting deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal officers, but gave no details. That’s been apoint of friction between federal authoritiesand state investigators, who complain that they have been frozen out of those cases so far with no access to evidence.

BY MARYCLARE JALONICK, KEVIN FREKING and SEUNG MIN KIM Associated Press

WASHINGTON Democratic leaders say aproposalfrom theWhiteHouse is “incompleteand insufficient”as they demand newrestrictionsonPresident Donald Trump’simmigration crackdown and threaten a shutdown of theHomeland SecurityDepartment.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and House Democraticleader Hakeem Jeffries said Tuesday that aRepublican counterproposal to thelist of demands they transmitted over the weekend“includedneither details nor legislative text” and does notaddress “the concerns Americans have about ICE’slawless conduct.”

Theproposal was notreleased publicly

use-of-forcestandards and astoptoracial profiling

They say such changes are necessary aftertwo protesters werefatally shot by federal agents in Minneapolis last month.

trading papers, and“hopefully they can find some common ground here.”

BY REBECCA BOONE Associated Press

BOISE, Idaho

Three Idaho

families who are U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents are suing after they and hundreds of others were detained for hours during an aggressive immigration raid at arural horse racingtrack last year

Similar immigrationdragnets marked by aheavy use of force have entangled U.S. citizens and legalresidents in other states. An Alabama construction worker and U.S. citizen who says he was detained twice byimmigration agentsfiled afederal lawsuit in his statelast year demanding an end toTrump administration workplace raidstargeting industries with large immigrantworkforces.

Other lawsuits alleging racial profilingand unconstitutional detentionhave had mixed results in the courts. The Idaho families were

The families say state and federal law enforcement agencies conspired to use unconstitutional and illegal tactics during the raid, including detainingpeople because they appeared to be Latino; keeping adults and some children in zip ties for hours without access to food, water or bathrooms; andsearching individualswithout reasonable suspicion of acrime.

among roughly 400 people detained at the privately owned race track known as La Catedral, located about an hour’sdrive west of Boise. The October raid cameas part of an FBI-led investigation intoallegations of illegal gambling, but only five people at the event were arrested in connection withthe investigation. More than 100 others were arrested on suspicionof immigration violations.

TheFBI hada criminal search warrant for thegambling investigation, but the operation was essentially a “fishingexpedition forimmigration violations,” attorneys with the ACLU of Idaho wrote in the lawsuit.

The Democrats’ rejection of the Republican counteroffercomes as time is running short,with ashutdown of the Homeland Security Department threatening to beginSaturday. Amongthe Democrats’demands are arequirement for judicial warrants, better identification of DHS officers, new

“Wesimply want ICE to followthe samestandards that mostlaw enforcement agencies across America alreadyfollow,”Schumer said Tuesday.“Democrats await the next answer from our Republican counterparts.”

EarlierMonday, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., had expressed optimismabout the rare negotiations between Democrats and the White House,saying there was “forward progress.”

Thune said it wasagood sign that the twosides were

But coming to an agreement on thechargedissue of immigration enforcementwill be difficult.Rankand-file lawmakers in both parties are skeptical and there werefew signs of potential compromise on the main issuesthatDemocrats have laid out.

Schumerand Jeffries have said they want immigration officers to remove their masks, to show identification and to better coordinate with local authorities. They have also demanded a stricter use-of-forcepolicy forthe federalofficers, legal safeguards at detention centers anda prohibition on tracking protesters with body-worn cameras.

acrossthe nation.With13parades on the2026 schedule throughout Terrebonne Parish,the funbeginsearly anddoesn’t stop untilthe final floatscompletethe routeonFat Tuesday. TheKrewe of Aphroditerolls at 6p.m.Feb 13 andthe KreweofMardi Gras parade is at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 14.There aretwo paradesonFeb 15 –the KreweofTerreanians at 12:30p.m andthe KreweofMontegutat2p.m.OnLundi Gras,Feb.16, theKrewe of Cleopatraisat6 p.m. Threeparades willrollonFeb. 17,Fat Tuesday, starting with theKrewe of Houmasat1 p.m.,followedbythe KreweofKajunsand the KrewedeBonne Terre.

Each parade is sure to offer colorfully themed floats, scores of marchingbands andtonsof greatthrows. In fact,the season hasgrown so popularthatHouma is nowwidelyconsidered to host some of thelargest MardiGrascelebra-

tionsinLouisiana.Stayinthe know,planyour trip andcatch everythrillbyfollowing “Explore Houma” on Facebook andInstagram for the latest updates. As an addedbonus,the BayouCountry CrawfishTrail offersmorethan40stops serving crawfishdishesyear-round– thebestway to sample alocal delicacy andrevel in authentic Louisianaflavor.Fromclassic boiled crawfishwithall thefixingstopo-boys,pastasand gumbos,locally-ownedrestaurants have put theirown spin on crawfishand areready to serve. Visitcrawfishtrail.comtoplanyour itinerary, collectreceipts from at leastfive locationsand send them in to claimyourfree CrawfishTrail T-shirt. Whetheryou’reanew visitorora lifelong local, Houma offersaninvitationtocelebrate Cajuncultureatitsfinest—safe,family-friendly andunforgettable.Visit explorehouma.com to learnmore.

Democratic legislator passes on U.S. Senate run

Carter won’t challenge Cassidy

BY TYLER BRIDGES Staff writer

State Sen. Gary Carter Jr.isthe latest prominent Louisiana Democrat to take apassonrunning for theU.S. Senate this year

With the three-day qualifying periodfor the race set to begin on Wednesday, it remainsunclear whether amajor Democrat will challenge U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge.

U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow,R-Baton Rouge, and state Treasurer John Fleming have announced plans to try to defeat Cassidy in theRepub-

lican primary. Carter said on Tuesday that he took aclose look at running for the seat.

“The Democratic Party has a greatopportunity,but the timing is just not right for me,” said Carter, who represents the west bank of Orleansand Jefferson parishes andPlaqueminesParish. An attorney who owns areal estate title company, Carter,51, has served in theLegislature for adecade.

Carter envisions the Republican candidates tearing themselves apart in the Senate primary.That and the declining popularity of President Donald Trumpcreate an openingfor aDemocrat who has a unifying message, he said.

“Wecan do so much if we can just set aside the politics,”Carter

said. “The pendulumofpolitics swings back and forth. It’sswinging back (toward Democrats).”

Chasity VerretMartinez, a Democrat,onSaturday handily won astate House race anchored in Iberville Parish that Trumphad carried by 13 points in 2024.

Former Gov. JohnBel Edwards and state Sen. Jay Luneau, of Alexandria, said last year that they wouldbypass theSenaterace. No Democrat,other thanEdwards, has won astatewide election in Louisiana since then-U.S.Sen.Mary Landrieu won reelection in 2008.

Winning this year’sSenate race, Carter said, “is not akamikaze mission” for aDemocrat.

Three little-known Democrats have said they plan to run for the seat.

in which Kennedy had appeared. “One of them would be medical freedom,that she feels very stronglyon.”

Letlow also agreed with thegroup’s position on serving healthy lunches at schools and other points, Lyons said.

“I proudly consider myself aMAHA mom and am committed to working with the Trump Administration to ensure children have access to ahealthy lifestyle, starting with the foods they eat,” Letlow said in astatement Tuesday.“My service in Congress is driven by adesire to create abetter life for my children and future generations, and Iwill never back downfrom that fight.“

“Medical freedom” refers to amovementtoreject government involvement in personal and family health choices, including support for nonpasteurized milk and beef tallow,removal of fluoride from drinking water and processed foods, and opposition to mandatory vaccinations. Most medicalexperts, including Cassidy,who is ahepatologist, argue there are no serious, proven dangers to the shots, and broad vaccinations prevent the spread of deadly diseases.

Cassidy said Tuesday he was notangry at Kennedy that the MAHA Center was backing his opponent.

“When you’vegot courage and you stick up for the things that matter,there’s going to be people who come after you,” Cassidy said. “MAHA preaches alot of things. If you’re speaking about ultraprocessed food, I think that there has been a real positive emphasis upon needing to do something about ultraprocessed food.”

But Cassidy continued: “On things like vaccines, you can look at the measles outbreak in South Carolina, or the two children who died in West Texas, or the mother wholosther baby when exposed to someone who was unvaccinated.I’m pro-life. To me, that’sso tragic. And so you can see our fundamental disagreement on that.”

Lyons said the endorse-

ules.

YetKennedy andthe agencies he controlsreduced therequired vaccinationsfor children to attend school, letting their parents decidemanyofthe ones to take and replacing the vaccine advisers to the department’s Centers for Disease Control andPreventionwith agroup that includesmany vaccine skeptics.

ment of Letlow was thefirst in aplantohelpcongressional candidates, mostly Republicans,who support MAHA and Kennedy’s agenda in the November midterms, which many believe could change control of the U.S. Houseand perhaps the Senate as well. MAHAAction Inc.,based in NewYorkCity, also has endorsed Iowa gubernatorial candidate Zach Lahn in what is turning out to be a crowded field. Lyons’ groupwas behind the Mike Tyson television commercial during Sunday’sSuper Bowl LX. The 30-second spot, during which Tyson recalled thedeath of his sister who battledobesity because of herdiet, waspaidfor by wealthy supporters, he said. Lyons and his group raised money for Kennedy’spresidential campaign until the lawyer droppedout and joined forces with President Donald Trump.

Long-simmering tensions

Cassidy has been walking apolitical tightrope when it comes to Kennedyand MAHA.

As chairofthe influential Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee, Cassidy,more than any other senator,was responsible for Kennedy getting confirmed.

The senator saidhedid so after Kennedy assured him he wouldnot undermine the nation’s vaccinationsched-

Cassidy has criticized some of those actions, though he usually avoids naming Kennedy specifically Cassidy is widely seen as vulnerable becauseofhis vote to convict Trump on impeachment charges that the president incited the Jan. 6, 2021,stormingofthe U.S. Capitol by his followers hoping to disrupt thecertificationofJoe Bidenwinning the 2020 presidential election.

Cassidy was censured by Louisiana Republicans in a statethatoverwhelmingly supportsTrump. Letlow and his other major Republican rival, stateTreasurer John Fleming,have blasted him for thevote.

Fleming, aformer congressman who worked in the White House during Trump’s first term, is continuing the race and has also specifically criticized Cassidy for notfully backing Kennedy’sagenda.

Trump endorsedLetlow in aTruth Social post Jan. 17, leading her to jump intothe race soon after TheFederal Election Commission is still processing disclosures from Letlow’ssenate campaign.

Butinher U.S. House war chest,she had $2.4million on hand at theend of 2025. Cassidy reported a$10.1 million balance.

Othercandidates began dropping out of the Senate race soon after Trump weighed in.

State Sen. Blake Miguez, R-New Iberia and aselfdescribedMAHA champion,and state Rep. Julie Emerson, R-Carencro, exited the race. Emerson was named Tuesday as Gov.Jeff

Investigators have said for more than a week that they believe Nancy Guthrie was taken against her will She was last seen at home Jan. 31 and reported missing the next day. DNA tests showed blood on her porch was hers, authorities said.

She has high blood pressure and issues with mobility and her heart, and she needs daily medication, officials have said.

Until now, authorities have released few details, leaving it unclear if ransom notes demanding money with deadlines already passed were authentic, and whether the Guthrie family has had any contact with the abductors.

Savannah Guthrie posted the new surveillance images on social media Tuesday, saying the family believes she is still alive and offering phone numbers for the FBI and county sheriff. Within minutes, the post had thousands of comments

Investigators had hoped cameras would turn up evidence right away about how Nancy Guthrie disappeared from her home in an secluded neighborhood But the doorbell camera was disconnected early on Feb. 1, and while software recorded movement at the home minutes later, she did not have an active subscription, so none of the footage could be recovered, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said.

Heartbreaking messages by Savannah Guthrie and her family shifted from hopeful to bleak as they pleaded with the apparent kidnappers. In a video just ahead of a purported ransom deadline

EMERSON

Continued from page 1A

help lead this administration as we continue fighting for a stronger, safer, and more prosperous Louisiana.”

A third-term Republican, Emerson has represented Carencro and surrounding towns north of Lafayette since 2016, spending the past two years as chair of the powerful Ways and Means Committee. Emerson was in the news most recently when she announced last month that she was dropping her bid to be

Continued from page 1A

to build a 20,500-square-foot library near the campus of Holy Rosary Institute, a former school for Black students that closed in 1993 and is undergoing restoration

Monday, Savannah Guthrie appeared alone and spoke directly to the public, not the abductor

“We are at an hour of desperation,” she said Monday “We need your help.”

Much of the nation is closely following the case involving the longtime anchor of NBC’s morning show

White House press secretary

Karoline Leavitt said President Donald Trump watched the new surveillance footage and was in “pure disgust,” encouraging anyone with

Louisiana’s next senator Emerson said she didn’t see a path to victory once U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow, RBaton Rouge, joined the race after receiving the endorsement of President Donald Trump. Besides Letlow, state Treasurer John Fleming is challenging the reelection of U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge. During her six months as a candidate, Emerson campaigned as a fresh-faced conservative. Emerson has less experience running an office than Ruckert, who was former U.S. Sen. David Vitter’s chief of staff. But she has

The Lafayette Parish Council in December gave Mayor-President Monique Boulet’s administration permission to move forward with plans to lease several acres of land along Louisiana Avenue near Carmel Avenue owned by a nonprofit corporation owned and operated by Catholic nuns. An agreement with the nuns should be signed in the next few weeks, Godeaux said. Design and site planning are expected to begin this spring. Construction is expected to go out for bid in early 2027, and construction should begin in the second quarter of 2027, Godeaux said. Lafayette Parish will be responsible for building, operating and maintaining the library, which it would own. Design and construction will be led by 720design, a Dallas-based firm specializing

information to call the FBI.

The FBI this week began posting digital billboards about the case in major cities from Texas to California.

Connor Hagan, a spokesperson for the FBI, said Monday that the agency was not aware of ongoing communication between Guthrie’s family and the suspected kidnappers. Authorities also had not identified any suspects, he said.

Three days after the search began, Savannah Guthrie and her two siblings sent their first public

ample political experience she works as a political consultant and knocked off a Democratic incumbent in 2015 to win her House seat. Landry and House Speaker Phillip DeVillier, R-Eunice, chose her to chair the taxwriting committee in late 2023. In that role, she helped shepherd Landry’s major tax package through the Legislature in 2024. That package reduced income tax rates while raising the state sales tax for the next five years. Emerson is the first woman to chair a finance committee in the House. Also in 2024, Emerson sponsored legislation

in library architecture.

While LCG is in charge of overseeing construction, Godeaux said the library’s administrative staff will be involved with decisions such as selecting furniture for the new library

Construction of a new library in the northeast section of the city has been discussed for years. The area is socio-economically challenged with high poverty rates.

The average annual household income is $30,000, and many residents rely on public transportation or walking to move around.

Lafayette Parish would lease the property for 99 years at a cost of $1, with the option to renew the lease for another 99 years.

Contact Claire Taylor at ctaylor@theadvocate.com

appeal to the kidnappers, telling them “we want to hear from you, and we are ready to listen.”

In the recorded video, Guthrie said her family was aware of media reports about a ransom letter, but they first wanted proof their mother was alive. “Please reach out to us,” they said.

The next day, Savannah Guthrie’s brother again told the kidnappers to reach out “so we can move forward.”

“Whoever is out there holding our mother we want to hear from

pushed by Landry that has created the closed primary system for federal elections beginning this year The three-day qualifying period in those elections begins on Wednesday

In yet another measure in 2024, Emerson sponsored the legislation that repealed the corporate franchise tax, which is a levy on corporate assets.

In 2024, Emerson also pushed through the House a measure that gives parents greater opportunities to use public dollars to pay for

you. We haven’t heard anything directly,” Camron Guthrie said. Then over the past weekend, the family posted another video — one that was more cryptic and generated even more speculation about Nancy Guthrie’s fate.

“We received your message, and we understand. We beg you now to return our mother to us so that we can celebrate with her,” said Savannah Guthrie, flanked by her siblings. “This is the only way we will have peace. This is very valuable to us, and we will pay.”

their children to study at private schools. The bill setting up the program, known as LA GATOR, was sponsored by Sen Rick Edmonds, RBaton Rouge.

“The last two years have produced some of the boldest reforms Louisiana has ever seen reforms that have led us to climb in education rankings, business friendliness, and economic growth,” Emerson said in a statement.

“I’m honored to have been a part of many of these reforms as a legislator, and I look forward to continuing to

grow Louisiana as Governor Landry’s chief of staff.” Emerson’s House District 39 likely will be vacant during the upcoming legislative session since it will take time to schedule a special election to replace. In a text, Emerson said she will be “responsive to anyone who needs help in the interim.” She believes that the district office will remain open. Even with her departure, Republicans still hold a twothirds majority in the House, as well as in the Senate.

Annual governors’ gatheringunravels

TrumpexcludesDemocrats from events at WhiteHouse

BY JOEY CAPPELLETTI, STEVE PEOPLES andSTEVEN SLOAN Associated Press

WASHINGTON An annual meetingofthe nation’sgovernors that has long served as ararebipartisan gathering is unravelingafter President Donald Trump excluded Democratic governorsfrom White House events.

The National Governors Association said it will no longer hold aformal meeting with Trump when governors are scheduled to convene in Washington later this month, after the WhiteHouse planned to invite only Republican governors. On Tuesday,18Democratic governors also announced they wouldboycottatraditional dinner at the White House.

“If the reports are truethat not all governors are invited to these events, which have historically beenproductive andbipartisan opportunitiesfor collaboration, we will not be attending the White House dinner this year,” the Democratswrote. “Democratic governors remain united and will never stop fighting to protect and make life better for people in our states.”

Oklahoma Gov.Kevin Stitt, a Republican who chairs theNGA, told fellow governors in aletter on Monday that the White House intended to limit invitations to the association’s annual business meeting, scheduled for Feb. 20, to Republican governors only

“Because NGA’s mission is to represent all55governors, the

Lutnickadmitshe metwithEpstein laterthanclaimed

BY STEPHEN GROVES Associated Press

WASHINGTON Under questioning from Democratson Tuesday,Commerce SecretaryHoward Lutnick acknowledged that he had met with Jeffrey Epstein twice after the late financier’s2008 conviction for soliciting prostitution from achild,reversing Lutnick’sprevious claim that he had cut ties with him after 2005.

Lutnick again downplayed his relationship with the disgraced financier,who was once his neighbor in New York City,ashewas questioned by Democrats during asubcommittee hearingof theSenateAppropriations Committee. He described their contact as ahandful of emails and apair of meetings that were years apart.

“I did not have anyrelationship with him. Ibarely had anything to do with him,” Lutnick told lawmakers.

But Lutnickisfacing growing scrutiny,including calls for his resignation, from lawmakers after the release

of case files on Epsteincontradicted Lutnick’sclaims on apodcastlastyear thathe had decidedto“never be in theroom” with Epsteinagain aftera 2005 tourofEpstein’s home thatdisturbed Lutnick andhis wife.

The commerce secretary told senators Tuesday that he and his family actually had lunch with Epstein on his private island in 2012 and he hadanother hour-long engagementatEpstein’shome in 2011. Lutnick, amember of President DonaldTrump’s Cabinet,isthe highest-profile U.S. official to face bipartisancallsfor hisresignation amidrevelations of his ties to Epstein. His acknowledgement comes as lawmakers are grasping for what accountability looks like amid therevelationscontained in what’sknown as theEpstein files.

In countrieslike the United Kingdom,the Epstein files have triggered resignations and the stripping of royal privileges,but so far, U.S.officials have not met the same levelofretribution.

U.K.’s Starmeraverts leadership challenge

Primeminister remainsdamaged by Epsteinfallout

BYJILL LAWLESS Associated Press

LONDON Keir Starmer

fights anotherday After indirect fallout from the Jeffrey Epstein files sparked adramatic day of crisis that threatened to topple him, the U.K. prime minister wassaved by apugnacious fightback and hesitation among his rivals inside thegoverning Labour Party about the consequences of a leadership coup. Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said Tuesday that Labour lawmakers had “looked over the precipice …and they didn’tlike what they saw.” “And they thought theright thing was to unite behind Keir,” Milibandtoldthe BBC

Association is no longer serving as thefacilitator for that event, and it is no longer included in our official program,” Stitt wrote in the letter,which was obtained by TheAssociated Press.

The governors’ group, which is scheduledtomeetfromFeb.1921, is one of the few remaining venues where political leaders from both major parties gather to discussthe top issues facing their communities.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavittsaid on Tuesday thatTrump has“discretion to inviteanyone he wantstothe White House.”

“It’s thepeople’shouse,” she said.“It’s alsothe president’s home, so he can invite whomever he wantstodinners and events

hereatthe White House.”

Representativesfor Sitt and the NGA didn’t comment on the letter Brandon Tatum, theNGA’s CEO, said in astatement last week that the White House meeting is an “important tradition” and said the organization was “disappointed in theadministration’sdecision to make it apartisan occasion this year.”

In his letter to othergovernors, Stitt encouragedthe groupto unitearound commongoals.

“Wecannot allow one divisive action to achieve its goal of dividing us,” he wrote. “The solution is nottorespond in kind, but to rise above and to remain focused on our shared duty to the people we serve.America’sgovernors have always been models of pragmatic

leadership,and that example is most important when Washington grows distracted by politics.”

Signs of partisan tensions emerged at the White House meeting last year,when Trump and Maine’sGov.Janet Mills traded barbs.

Trump singledout the Democratic governor over his push to bartransgenderathletes from competing in girls’ and women’s sports, threatening to withhold federalfunding from thestate if she didnot comply.Mills responded,“We’ll seeyou in court.”

Trumpthen predicted that Mills’ political career would be over for opposing theorder. She is now running for U.S. Senate. The back-and-forth hada lasting impact on last year’sconference and some Democratic governors did notrenew their dues last year to the bipartisangroup.

LOST PROMISSORY NOTE:Anyone knowingthe whereaboutsorhaving possession of one(1) certain Promissory Note originally in favor of Citicorp TrustBank, fsbexecuted by Anna Louise Raymond, dated April8,2006, in theoriginalloan amount of $40,308.28, please contact ElizabethCrowell Pricebymailat

He might have added: For now.

Starmer’sauthority over his center-left party has been battered by aftershocks from the publicationoffiles related to Epstein —aman he nevermet andwhose sexualmisconduct hasn’timplicatedhim.

But it was Starmer’sdecision to appoint veteran LabourpoliticianPeter Mandelson, afriendof Epstein, as U.K. ambassador to Washington in 2024 that hasled manytoquestion the leader’sjudgment and call for his resignation Starmer has apologized, saying Mandelson had lied about the extent of his ties to the convicted sexoffender And he vowed to fight for his job.

“I will never walk away from themandate Iwas given to change thiscountry,” StarmersaidTuesday as he visited acommunitycenter in southern England.

PUBLIC NOTICE

REQUESTFOR PROPOSALS

Notice is hereby given thatsealedproposals willbereceivedinthe of‐fice of thePurchasingDi‐visionatthe Lafayette ConsolidatedGovern‐mentBuilding, locatedat 705 West University Av‐enue,Lafayette Louisiana,until 4:15 p.m. Central Time on the13th day of March, 2026 for the following: ELECTRICAL LINECON‐STRUCTION andwill, shortlythere‐after,beopenedand the NAMES ONLY read aloud inthe Office of Purchas‐ing locatedat705 West UniversityAvenue Lafayette,LA.

questionsbe summitted in writingto Heather Kestlerat hkestler@lafayettela.gov Proposals shallbeeither handdelivered or mailed ina sealed envelope to the addresslistedbelow Proposals received after the appointedtimewill bedeterminednon-re‐sponsiveand will notbe opened. Sealed propos‐als must be submittedin one (1)originalhard copymarkedoriginal, one (1)exact copy markedcopy, one(1) redactedcopymarked redacted, andone elec‐troniccopyona CD or USB drive. Proposals shouldbesentto705 WestUniversityAvenue Lafayette,LA70506 at‐tention HeatherKestler Copies of theRFP specifi‐cations areavailable at the Purchasing Office

opening virtuallyby using thefollowing link https://us02web.zoom us/j/82351962408? pwd=erDrv90Gh4XrsLr 8WyF9Ad0K5nGNJf.1 MeetingID: 823 5196 2408 Passcode: 495935

ScopeofServices: The scope of work shallcon‐sistof, butisnot limited to, providinglabor and equipment necessaryfor the installation of electri‐cal facilitiesonthe over‐headportion of themu‐nicipal powersystem. The Contract or theCon‐tractor’s designated Gen‐eralFormanshall have a minimum of fifteen (15) years’experienceinthe constructionand mainte‐nance of energizedover‐headelectricdistribution lines of at least13.8kV and energizedoverhead electrictransmission lines of aleast 69kV. DEADLINEFOR QUES‐TIONS:All questionsre‐garding this projectmust besubmitted no later than4:00PMonMarch 6, 2026 to be considered

p p for and/or inresponseto, emergencies or disas‐ters. Theintentofthe wardedcontractisfor vendors to provideaddi‐tionalproducts, services and personnelresources onanasneeded basis for disaster response.It iscriticalthatthese

markedoriginal, three(3) exact copies marked copy, andone (1)elec‐troniccopy(USBorCD) ofthe proposal which meetsthe specifictech‐nical criteria setforth herein. In addition,pro‐poser shallsubmitone (1) redacted copy of the proposalshall be submit‐ted in asealedenvelope and shallbeclearly markedRedactedCopy bearing thenameofthe project firm submitting the redacted copy and the date.Proposals shouldbesentto705 WestUniversityAvenue Lafayette,LA70506 at‐tention HeatherKestler Copies of theRFP specifi‐cations areavailable uponrequest at thePur‐chasing Office locatedat 705 West University Av‐enue,Lafayette,LA 70506. Telephonenumber (337) 291-8071(Attn: Heather Kestler) hkestler@lafayettela.gov RFP specificationsshall beavailable until twentyfour(24)hours before the proposal opening date. No Vendor maywithdraw his proposal foratleast sixty (60) days afterthe timescheduled forthe opening of proposals. Eachproposalshall fol‐low theinstructions listedinthe RFPregard‐ing submittaloftheir proposal. Proposalswillbeevalu‐atedbythe Purchaser based on theevaluation criteriaoutlinedinthe Request forProposals The

PROVIDED

Iran secretaryvisitsOman, site of nucleartalks with U.S.

BY JON GAMBRELL Associated Press

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates— Atop Iranian security officialtraveled on Tuesday to Oman, the Mideast sultanate now mediating talks between Tehran and Washington over the Islamic Republic’snuclear program aimed at halting apossible American strike.

The visit by Ali Larijani, aformer Iranian parliament speaker who now serves as the secretary to the country’sSupreme National Security Council, likely focusedonwhat comes next after the initial round of indirect talks held last week in Muscat withthe Americans.

Larijani’sentourage sharedphotos of him meeting with Omani Foreign Minister Badral-Busaidi, the chief intermediary in theU.S.Iran talks, with what appeared to be aletter sheathed in plasticand sitting alongside the Omani diplomat. Iran has in the past communicated its positions in writing when dealing with the Americans —and famously,Japan’sthen-Prime

Minister Shinzo Abe tried to hand Iranian SupremeLeaderAyatollah Ali Khamenei aletter from Trump in 2019 that he refused to take Iranian mediahad saidLarijani would deliver an important message.However,Iranian state television hours after that meeting describedal-Busaidi as having “handed over aletter” to Larijani. It didnot elaboratefromwhere the lettercame.

Larijani also met with Oman’s Sultan Haitham bin Tariq for nearly three hours, the state-run IRNA news agency reported. Neither Iran nor Oman offered any details on what had been discussed in Larijani’smeetings.

Larijani waslater to travel to Qatar,which hosts amajor U.S military installation that Iran attacked in Juneafter the U.S bombed Iranian nuclear sites during the 12-dayIran-Israel war Iran and the U.S. held new nuclear talkslast week in Oman.

Foreign Minister AbbasAraghchi speaking Sunday to diplomatsat asummit in Tehran, signaled that Iran would stick to its posi-

tion that it mustbeable to enrich uranium —a major point of contention with U.S.President Donald Trump. That wardisrupted earlierrounds of nuclear talks between Washington and Tehran.

“The Muscat meeting, which was notalongone,itwas ahalfday meeting. For us it was away to measure theseriousness of the other side, andtofind out how we could continue the process Thereforewemostlyaddressed the generalities,”IranianForeign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei toldjournalists at anews conference Tuesday in Tehran.

“Our principles are clear.Our demand is to secure the interests of the Iranian nationbased on international norms and theNonProliferation Treaty and peaceful use of nuclear energy,” Baghaei said. “So as for thedetails, we should wait for the next stepsand see how this diplomatic process will continue.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is travelingto Washington this week,withIran expected to be the major subject of discussion.

BY EMMABURROWS AssociatedPress

LONDON Russia cannotlaunch an attack on NATO this year or next but is planning to increase itsforcessignificantlyalong the alliance’seasternflank, depending on the outcomeofthe warin Ukraine, asenior European intelligence official said.

Speakinginanonlinebriefing with journalists, Kaupo Rosin, the head of Estonia’sforeign intelligenceservice, also told The Associated Press that Russian President Vladimir Putin currently has no desire to halt the nearly 4-year-old invasion of neighboring Ukraine andthinks he can “outsmart” the United States during talks on how to end the war.

Rosin said Russia’splan involvescreating new military unitsand multiplying the prewar force along its border with NATO by two to three times.

But that will be heavily influencedbythe outcomeofdiscussions involving Moscow,Washington andKyivregarding acessationofhostilitiesinUkraine, he said. That’sbecause Russia will need to maintain a“significant portion” of its military inside occupiedUkraine andinRussiato

prevent future Ukrainianaction, he said. Currently there are “not enough resources available” forMoscow to launch an attack on NATO, but theKremlin is concerned about Europe rearmingand beingable to conduct military action against Russia in the next couple of years, the intelligence chief said. Russian officials, meanwhile, are playing for time in the talks withWashington and “there is absolutely no discussionabout how to really cooperate with the U.S. in ameaningful way,”Rosin said. Rosin spoke to reporters ahead of the publication of Estonia’sannual security report Tuesday He said the information on how the Kremlin views the talks with theU.S.isbased on intelligence that NATO member Estonia gathered from “Russian internal discussions.”Hedid notelaborate on how the information was obtained but said thediscussions showed that Russian officials believe Washington remains Moscow’s “main enemy.”

Russianofficials have insisted publicly they wantanegotiated deal but have shownlittlewillingness to compromise andremain adamant their demands must be met

Lafayette secures federal funds

Money going toward infrastructure, economic development, more

BY STEPHEN MARCANTEL Staff writer

Lafayette Parish secured more than $14.5 million in federal funding through the 2026 federal spending package.

The funding will support economic development, emergency preparedness and infrastructure modernization, according to a Lafayette Consolidated Government announcement. More than half of the funding, $7.5 million, will go toward Mayor-President Monique Boulet’s marquee Johnston Street Revitalization Initiative. Funding will provide for roadway, safety and drainage improvements near Lafayette’s downtown and the University of Louisiana at Lafayette campus. In December, Lafayette re-

State audit again finds flaws in reviews

BY MEGHAN FRIEDMANN Staff writer

For the fifth year in a row, a state audit found that Louisiana’s prison system failed to adequately review changes to release date calculations for inmates.

However, while the report found that some calculations were not properly audited, it did not find errors in the release dates.

The Louisiana legislative auditor released the report Feb. 4. Department of Public Safety and Corrections officials said they did not have enough staff to perform as many reviews as their own policies demanded. They have changed their rules to make review requirements more “feasible,” they said. As of 2024, agency policies required officials to perform secondary reviews of offenders’ release dates each time they were updated, according to the report. Inmates’ release dates must be periodically recalculated because they can receive time off their sentences for good behavior and for completing certain programs; they can also lose credits due to disciplinary infractions.

Of 30 recalculations performed during the last six months of 2024, auditors found that 11 “did not have reviewer initials or other support to indicate the change entered in the system was reviewed by someone other than the preparer,” according to their report, which adds that none of those release date changes were wrongly calculated.

Auditors recommended that “due to the complexity of the time computation process, management should ensure Department policies that require a secondary review of time computations, including all subsequent changes to time computations, are followed.”

Instead, the corrections department has changed its policies to ensure it complies with its own rules, Secretary Westcott said in a letter responding to the report.

“The Department found the changes requested by (the auditor) that all subsequent changes to a prisoner’s release date be immediately subjected to a second-level review was neither a remotely feasible request of staff nor necessary given technological advances,” which include new software for auditing and calculating release dates, Tiffany Dickerson, a spokesperson for the prison system, said in a statement. She added that the requested changes would double workloads for staff who calculate release dates, calling them “entirely unnecessary and a wasteful use of taxpayer money.”

The agency was “confident” that it had enough mechanisms in place to prevent inmates from being held past their release dates, she said. The state requires that all initial release date calculations are double checked, and that it double checks calculations again prior to release, according to Dickerson’s statement. On Monday, the corrections

ceived $8 million in federal funding through a Department of Transportation grant to repair and improve pedestrian safety along a 1.3-mile stretch of Johnston between Bertrand and Churchill Drive.

Approximately $5 million in the spending package is allocated to improvements to Lafayette’s Emergency Operations Center to enhance the parish’s emergency response capabilities.

Lafayette Utilities System will receive about $2 million to replace its water and wastewater laboratories and upgrade waterlines. More than $1 million will allow LUS to replace its aging testing lab facilities, with the remaining $1 million allocated to upgrading the city’s oldest waterlines.

“I want to thank our delegation, Senators (Bill) Cassidy and (John)

Kennedy, along with Congressmen (Cleo) Fields and (Clay) Higgins, for their partnership and for making sure Lafayette Parish’s priorities were heard in Washington,” Boulet wrote. “These projects are about investments that make a real difference in people’s daily lives — safe roads, clean water, and being prepared when emergencies happen. With the entire Louisiana congressional delegation’s support, this funding is going to help us tackle real needs across Lafayette Parish.”

ONE WITH THE RUN

TOP: A chicken is chased by children during the Courir de Mardi Gras at Vermilionville on Sunday in Lafayette. Members of the Basile Mardi Gras Association ran through the historic village gathering ingredients for a gumbo and ending with the famous chicken chase for children.

ABOVE: Masked revelers play music and wait for the Courir de Mardi Gras to begin.

LEFT: Brenda Lalonde, left, hands some celery to a masked Mardi Gras runner to be used for a gumbo.

Echols enters Republican primary for House seat

State representative eyes Letlow’s spot

BY TYLER BRIDGES Staff writer

State Rep. Michael Echols, of Monroe, announced Tuesday that he will compete for the congressional seat that U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow, R-Baton Rouge, is vacating to run for the U.S. Senate.

“We are at a turning point in our country,” Echols said in a statement. “President Trump needs more businessmen and builders like him

of Erath, near New Iberia, who lives outside

BY JOEL THOMPSON Staff writer

Leaders in Acadia Parish could potentially eliminate portions of a sale and use tax that sparked contro-

OUR VIEWS

Cost of ‘tough on crime’ approach beginning to show

Most difficult societal issues require solutions thatare morecomplexthanpolitical rhetoric wouldhaveusbelieve. Such is thecasewith crime and public safety.After the Legislature passed aseries of billsin2024 thatlengthened prisonsentencesand all but eliminatedopportunities for parole, among other “tough on crime” measures, the state is now seeinganincreasein thecost of locking people up For its 2026-27 budget, thestate Department of Public Safety &Correctionssaysitneeds another $82 million in statefunds, an11% increase over its current budget. While inflationand overtime are part of the reason,state officials cannot deny that our burgeoningprisonpopulation is putting astrain on finances.

Figures show that the number of people in state custody increased bymore than 2,000 from the end of 2023, when state prisons held 28,093 inmates, to Nov.30, 2025, whenthatpopulation reached 30,119.

The Legislature must approvethe budget, and someofficials say the increase could be less than projected. But if any of ourstate leaders are having trouble understandingwhy these increases are necessary now,theyshouldtakea long hard look in the mirror

When Gov.Jeff Landry campaignedfor office in 2023, the state had seena spate of shocking crimes by juveniles and,though crime rates were on the way down, public perceptionwas that crime was out of control.

In such cases, the proper role of political leadersistolook closely at what policiesare working and try to reassure thepublic by supporting thosepolicies, not abandoningthem— even when they go against popular beliefs. Butvowingacrackdown on offenders, thegovernorand state legislators completely changedcourse from 2017 criminal justice reforms, known as the Justice Reinvestment Act, that were having an effect.

The act had passed with strong support from both Democratsand cost-conscious Republicans. It was basedonresearch on what actually affects crime rates, and aimedto reducesentences for nonviolent offenders anduse the savings to invest in rehabilitation programs. In theinterveningyears, Louisiana’sprison population declined. And crime ratesstarted their decline in 2023 in most major cities in our state.

Yetin2024, one of the governor’sfirst actions was to call aspecial session to pass asweeping slate of bills that undid those reforms.

We support strong penalties for violent offenders and understand whypolls showed the governor’sapproach was popular with voters. But as the costs of criminal detentionmount, Louisiana is left with some stark questions: Does the state with the nation’shighest incarceration ratereally need to spend even more money on prisons? Or would we rather ourtax dollars go to schools, hospitals and economic development opportunities?

Thoseare decisions we aremakingevery time we choose sound bites over soundpublic policy.

LETTERSTOTHE EDITOR ARE WELCOME. HERE AREOUR

GUIDELINES: Letters are published identifying name, occupation and/or title and the writer’scity of residence

TheAdvocate |The Times-Picayune require astreet address andphone number for verification purposes, but that information is not published. Letters are not to exceed 300 words. Letters to the Editor,The Advocate, P.O. Box 588, Baton Rouge, LA 70821-0588, or email letters@ theadvocate.com.

TO SEND US A LETTER, SCANHERE

YOUR VIEWS

LookingatAmerican values vs.partisanship

Just by reading the headline, “American Values vs. Partisanship,”you have already dug in and decided what this letter is about and how to react to it Why? Because we all have strong opinions and beliefs, particularly regarding politics. Ultimately,what we really care about is preserving our own selfidentity.You know,those layers and layers of ideas and beliefs we call our own. The ones that make you, you. When presented withideas and information that challenge our sense of self, we push back fiercely.Wemust preserve our sense of who we are at all costs, even if that means denying the obvious.Weall do this. Just ask your spouse, friend or family member Here is one example: On Jan. 21, The Associated Press reported that it had received an internal memo from Immigration and CustomsEnforcement stating immigration officers could forcibly enter people’shomes without ajudicial warrant

It’sbeen 10 months since Iwrote a letter I’d sworn off writing because of thevitriol coming from all sides.But Ifelt compelled to write because of something never mentioned.

If Irecall, in the year 2021, there was apresident by thename of Joe Biden. Iremember he gave aspeech where he urged asylum-seekers to cross the border My question is,why isn’tsome of theanger about enforcement aimed at him?

This move by the Lafayette Parish Sheriff’s Officeisvery concerning for all citizens of Lafayette Parish.

The sheriff is appointing27deputies to aid ICE on his own authority. ICE is illegally forcing its way into homes without search warrants. Immigrations have shot dead awoman and aman who were U.S.citizens. They have arrested U.S. citizens. The sheriff’s deputies are for Lafayette Parishlaw andorder. Thesheriff closes thefront of theLafayette court-

Is this policy agood thing or abad thing?Your reply may largely depend on how you self-identify.Many people’sself-identities align with a political party; therefore, their beliefs depend on their party’sbeliefs. Forcibly entering homes without judicial warrantsclearly violates the FourthAmendment of theUnited States Constitution; we would be hardpressed to find aconstitutional lawyer who would say otherwise. When partisanship is so closely aligned with one’sself-identity that nothing else matters, we are leftwith acountry ruledbyafew influential people. They tell us what to believe, and we will believe it, whatever it is, even if it meansdestroying our American values and betraying the Greatest Generation who fought in World WarII precisely to defend against this kind of insidious erosion of our freedoms.

CRAIGKRAEMAR NewOrleans

I’m going to reference Jan6,2021. Wasitbad? Absolutely No matter who or what youbelieve, it should not and cannothappen again. What President Biden allowed was an all-out assault not only on our country,but alsoonour safety and social services.I’m just as upset as everyone else about the unrest. But I’m more upset about those turning a blind eye to the true architect of it all —President Joe Biden DAVE HEBERT Lafayette

house, saying he doesn’t have the money to post adeputy there. Who will pay for the27deputies to aid ICE? Not thetaxpayers of Lafayette. The City Council’slawyer should have thesheriff publicly explain howthe militarized deployment will be legally justified. Roundups of immigrants at sugar millsand construction sites willcause economic chaos.

DWIGHT DAVID Lafayette

Don’tlet early education become an afterthought

To jump-start Early Education Month, Iattended an insightful webinar hosted by the Louisiana Policy Institute forChildren, where Elizabeth Groginsky,New Mexico Secretary forEarly Childhood Education and Care, shared how other states are leading with bold policy action. In NewMexico, lawmakers from both parties came together to pass legislation making the state the first in the nation to offer no-cost universal child care forall families, regardless of income.

They accomplished this by removing incomeeligibility requirements from the state’schild care assistance program and continuing the waiver of family copayments; ahistoric, bipartisan milestone that supports family stability,workforce participation and children’slearning from the earliest years.

Her keynote madeone thing clear: This kind of transformation only happens when early childhood is treated as essential public infrastructure, not aprivate burden for families to navigate alone. When states invest early,families thrive, the workforce growsstronger and children gain the foundation they need forlifelong learning.

Here in Louisiana, groups like the Ready Louisiana Coalition are championing similar investments, reminding us that accessible, affordable early learning is foundational to aprosperous state. Their advocacy highlights the economic and social benefits of expanding access to quality early childhood support forall families.

Equally important is the work of Geaux Far Louisiana, which places family and provider voices at the center of policies that build aresponsive early childhood system.Their vision amplifies the need forequitable and sustainable communitycentric policy

Iurge our state’sleaders to learn from bipartisan advances in other states and fund early childhood education morerobustly.Investing in our youngest learners is an investmentinLouisiana’sfuture.

CRYSTAL ELLIS Baton Rouge

Youdidn’thavetounderstand

BadBunny to love theshow

Idon’t read or speak much Spanish, so I’m one of 250 million Americans who don’tspeakthe nation’ssecond-mostcommon language. Depending on which report you believe, more than 50 million people in this country do.

Ilistened andwatched as Bad Bunnyperformed an extraordinary NFL Super Bowl halftime showSunday night. Precisionexecution.Inless than 33 minutes from the lastplay of the first half to the start of the second half, Bunnyand histeam setupand broke down amultiple-scene visual production that lasted only 13 minutes. But, boy, did he pack in alot.

Joining him were worldwidesuperstars Lady Gaga and Ricky Martin, whoperformed. Isaw celebrity entertainers who popped up in one scene or another,including Cardi B,PedroPascal, Young Miko and Jessica Alba.

Iwas amazed and thrilled.Sowas CBS nationalcorrespondent David Begnaud Begnaud, aproud, born-and-bred Louisiana Cajun, told me on WBOK 1230 AM Monday morning that he’saregular guy who watches the Super Bowl on television like millions of others. But he was there, at his first Super Bowl. “I was like akid in acandy store. I got to watchvery little of the game. Ihad adream ticket,got lucky and had the best time.”

Instead of beingone of the135 million watching on NBC, he was one of the nearly 71,000 who were in thestadium. Begnaud missedthe chanceto be apart of the most-watched halftime show ever There’sareason for that viewership. And it wasn’tthe teams.

Bad Bunny is aworldwidesuperstar

Born BenitoAntonio Martínez Ocasio in San Juan, Puerto Rico, he’satalented dancer,rapper,singer and songwriter who hasset the music industry on firewith reggaeton, popand Latin trap music. Youdon’thave to knowthe

George Orwell was on to it almost 80 years ago —the problem of belowreplacement level birth rates. In a short bookwritten for theBritain in Pictures series in 1947, written just as Britain was emerging from wartime rigors into an uncharted postwarfuture, Orwell noted that despiteanupward blip in birth rates during thewar, “the generalcurve is downward. The position is not quite so dangerous as it is sometimes said to be, butcan only be put right if the curve notonly rises sharply but does so within ten or at most twenty years.”

“Otherwise,” he went on,forebodingly,“the population will not only fall, but, what is worse, will consist predominantly of middle-aged people. If that point is reached, the decline may never be retrievable.” Orwell did not live to see it —hedied at the age of 46 in 1950 —but thedanger was averted. Postwar birthrates rose in Britain and parts of Europe, though not so robustly as in the United States, where the baby boom peaked in 1957 and petered out after the introduction of the birth control pill in 1962. The peak U.S. fertility rate, or the projection of how many children the median woman would have if current birth rates continued, hovered above 3.5 and then plunged to 1.74 in thebicentennial year of 1976, justabout the same as 2025’s1.79.

words to lovethe music.

Other than thenames of countries andpeople Irecognized when Bad Bunnysangthem, Iunderstood only three words he said: “God Bless America.”

That was alright with me. As Begnaudwatched the halftime performance, atear dripped from his lefteye. His partner posted it on X. I sawit, prompting me to call him “I gotemotional because thepeople of Puerto Ricohave been treated like second-class citizens for decades. That’s not my opinion. That’s afact,” he said. Begnaudtold me he teared up because hesaw anative Puerto Rican representing his island home, where Puerto Ricans were forced to fight duringthe Spanish-American War, only to be told they cannot be citizens.“Iwas so proud to see (Puerto Ricans), him andwhat they represent on this big stage.”

LikeBegnaud, Ifelt the halftime show was along overdue welcome, and an opportunity for Bad Bunny,Puerto Ricansand other Latinos to be them-

nations’ under-70 populations set to fall by 20% in the next decade, not only in economically stagnant Britain and France, wherebirths are tilted toward immigrants, but also in rapidly growing, low-immigration Poland.

Birth rates have dropped below replacement rates since 2000 in most of Latin America, largely because of lower-incomemothershaving fewer children

China, despite the repeal of itsonechild policy in 2015, saw its fertility rate plunge to 0.9 in 2025.

selves. When Kendrick Lamar,aBlack superstar rapper,singer and songwriter, performed at the Super Bowl, he sang and spoke English and Ihardly understood athing he said. People criticized his performance, too. Imade time to dig in, to read his words, to understand nuances and symbols. His wasn’taperformance for folks like me to grasp immediately.But like watching Bad Bunny on Sunday,it was achance to learnmoreabout what makes America great. Really great.

For thosewho missed aprimepoint with all the controversy,criticism and debate, this was an NFL business decision. The pro football league pissed off some people who didn’twatch Bad Bunny or watched somethingelse. But theleague gained viewership and fans who weren’tdown with the NFL.

Why do you thinkthe NFL is expanding thenumber of games played abroad to NINE next season? The New OrleansSaints will play theCleveland Browns in Paris. Three games will be played in London. Other games will be played in Melbourne, Australia, Germany—and Spain, Brazil and Mexico City, The NFL might want tobelike, or better than, the World Cup.

About 500 million or more people in theworld speak Spanish as their native language, and millionsmore also speak thelanguage. More than 55% of the World Cup’sviewers prefer watching a broadcast in Spanish.

“The message was inclusion,”Begnaud said. “Louisiana is amelting pot of various cultures. If we’re going to celebrate the Cajuns and the Creoles and everything we have in Louisiana, why would we not celebrate aguy who got on stage, as proud as he was, to be Puerto Rican AND to be aU.S. citizen. Iloved the show,and Idon’tspeak Spanish either.”

Don’tbeafraid. Let’scelebrate our individual backgrounds, cultures and experiences and our collective gumbo of cultures that make up Louisianaand theUnited States.

Email Will Sutton at wsutton@theadvocate.com.

In his groundbreaking book, “Private Truths, Public Lies,” political scientist Timur Kuran attacks avexing question: How can official orthodoxies persist for so long even when fewpeople believe them? Iread that book hungrily during the “Great Awokening,” trying to understand why so many institutions quickly abandoned their liberal commitments for radical social justice politics —and reread it as the Trump administration sought to impose its own brand of public truth on issues such as free speech.

nomically developed countries.

It’snot difficult to see why.Young women increasingly tilt left politically and also tend to marry less often, hold jobsoutside thehome, say they don’t want children, and travel more frequently

These behaviors correlate with childlessness or with delaying childbearing, which often results in fewer births than desired.

If births continued at current numbers, thelowest evidently since the 18th century,China’s population would shrink by more than half, from 1.4 billion to 625 million. Elsewhere in East Asia, the latest birth rates have fallen to 0.8 in Taiwan and Thailand, andeven lower in South Korea.

Koreanshave shown the determination to maintain their culture, includingtheiralphabet and independence, in aneighborhood with many more Japanese andChinese. They have risen from abject poverty to becomeworldclass exporters since the1953 armistice.But they may be at risk of disappearing:Atcurrent birthrates, every 100 South Koreans today will have only six great-grandchildren.

What is behind this worldwide trend?

The gap reflects “systematic differences in family formation between conservatives and liberals,” analyst ZacharyDonnini wrote. Beforethe Great Recession, this was masked by high birthrates among Black women who were heavily Democratic. But Black (and Hispanic) birthrates fell sharply after 2007.

At thesame time, the gap in political and cultural attitudes between young men andwomen has grown wider,on campus (where young men are increasingly outnumbered) and off, and both marriage and premarital sex rates have declined.

Fertility rates remainedlow in the 1980s, then rose and occasionally reached thereplacementrateof2.1 in the high-immigration 1990s through the Great Recession of 2007. The latest rate was an uptick from the1.6 levels of the COVID-19-affected 2020-24 period, leaving the U.S. with something similartothe dilemma Orwell warned Britons against. And it’snot just the U.S.Plunging birth rates are aworldwidephenomenon. Europe’sfertility rates havebeen well below replacement for years, with

LETTERS TO THEEDITORARE

At least one thing is clear about what is happening in America —and how it’s different from previous periods. It’s that childbearing has increasingly becomeapartisan activity

As the Institute for Family Studies’ LymanStone pointed out, American conservatives and progressives each had afertility rate of 2.7 in 1980, well abovereplacement level. In the 2020s, conservatives’ fertility rate has dropped marginally to about 2.4, still abovereplacement level. But theprogressives’ ratehas fallen to 1.8, below replacement level, and generally tracks thepatternineco-

Extrapolate those trends outward, and you see something like the picture revealed in the Census Bureau’s recently released 2026 estimates of states’ populations. They showed two-thirdsofthe national population increase occurring in safe red 2024 states, 21% in the seven seriously contested purple states, and only 11% in thesafe blue states.

Similarly,since children tend to share their parents’ political views, Wall Street Journal contributor Louise Perry wrote, we can “expect the partisan fertility gap to usher in aU.S. that is moreconservative. In fact, thewhole of the developed world is on track to becomemore conservative.”That’s a trend that Orwell, aproud socialist, might well have found even more dangerous than it’ssometimes said to be. Michael Barone is on X, @MichaelBarone

That proved to be excellent preparation for what happened recently.Ajury on Jan. 30 awarded $2 millionindamages to awoman who sued her psychologist and plastic surgeon for their role in a“gender-affirming” mastectomy she got whenshe was16. This verdict does not necessarily implicate all such surgeries. The verdict puts practitioners on notice that there are risks to mindlessly affirming.

Recently,the American Society of Plastic Surgeons issued aposition paper recommending waiting until age 19 to perform transitionsurgeries, saying “there is insufficient evidence demonstrating afavorable risk-benefit ratio for the pathway of gender-related endocrine and surgical interventions in children and adolescents.”Though ASPS policy has been evolving toward caution for some time, this seems to raise questions, not just about surgery for minors but hormone treatments.

Shortly after the guidance cameout, the American Medical Association released astatement taking amore cautious stance than its previous recommendations, saying “surgical interventions in minors should be generally deferredtoadulthood.” These might seem like small shifts. But as Kurannotes, whenpublic orthodoxy differs widely from private opinion, orthodoxies areprone to a“preference cascade” where public opinion snowballs. Medical association support hasbeen one of the strongest arguments offered by proponents of pediatric medical transition. Nowthat support seems to be weakening, opening up space for more doubt. Each skeptical voice makes it more likely that further doubts will be raised, triggering arapid shift to anew equilibrium.Ifyou’ve wondered how communism collapsed, that’show And if you’ve wondered why communist regimes are so oppressive, that’salso your answer When you are the custodian of afragile orthodoxy,you cannot afford to allow ahint of dissent. If you have followed the gender wars, youunderstand the parallel I’m drawing. Starting around 2015, an orthodoxy on transgender issues crystallized, seemingly outofnowhere. Transgender women were women, full stop, and it was transphobic to suggest that some spaces such as locker rooms, prisons or sports —should be reserved for biological females. The prevailing view wasthat gender-dysphoric kids “knewwho they were,” and denying them medicalinterventions to realize their true selves riskeddriving them to suicide. Boilerplate assertions that pediatric medical transition was “evidence-based,” “medically necessary” and even “lifesaving” began appearing everywhere, including journalistic style guides.

It is now clear that the evidence for these assertions wasweak, and it’snot clear why so many medical associations offered such strong endorsements with so little to back them up. But once issued, they all reinforced each other —questions about one could be quelled by pointing to all the others, and who hasany right to question our most eminent medical professionals?

Well, anyone has the right, but that orthodoxy was vigorously protected by freelance thought police who answered even the mildest query with accusations of transphobia. Those accusations could have real costs, like your joboryour friends. This manufactured consensus looked invincible, until it wasn’t.

Now,awhopping malpractice verdictand the shifting stance of the medical societies make it increasingly risky for doctors not to question these interventions. With more of these suits in the offing, malpractice insurers will ask that same question. If they don’tlike the answers, that mayultimately mean the end not just of surgeries for minors, but of hormones and puberty blockers, even in states where they are legal. If that happens, opponents of those interventions will no doubt cheer. Though Ihave questions about whether pediatric medical transition works, Iwon’t.

For one thing, I’m not opposed to pediatric transition. Isimply believe we need better evidence before making it standard medical practice. For another,asI’ve stressed in this columnbefore, a courtroom is the worst place to resolve questions that should have been answered long before. Juries and judges are now handling these questions because so many institutions failed to do their job. And many people will pay aprice for that, most of all the ones whose bodies will neverbethe same Megan McArdle is on X, @asymmetricinfo.

Parole denied for mom

Baby died weighing less than 6 pounds from being fed cow’s milk

BY JOHN SIMERMAN Staff writer

A single no vote from the state parole board Tuesday will mean years longer in prison for Tiffany Woods, whose infant son died during their Hurricane Katrina evacuation after she fed him organic cow’s milk rather than baby formula.

Woods wept in blue prison scrubs as she recounted tiny Emmanuel’s death as she pleaded for an early release over a video screen from the Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women in St. Gabriel.

Convicted of second-degree murder in 2008 over her son’s death in Shreveport, Woods was serving an automatic life sentence until former Gov. John Bel Edwards commuted it to 36 years in 2023 under a recommendation from the pardon board.

The partial mercy made Woods, 46, eligible for release in half that time. And on Tuesday, two of three members of a parole board panel backed freedom for Woods, praising her for reforming in prison, her support on the outside and a plan to receive housing and services from the Louisiana Parole Project.

Board member Carolyn Stapleton, however, said she couldn’t countenance Woods’ release after hearing opposition from Caddo Parish District Attorney James Stewart’s office and viewing photos of baby Emmanuel’s tiny body

“You’ve done remarkable, wonderful things. But because of the condition of the child and the circumstances that the DA’s Office described, I am not going to be able to grant you parole today,” said Stapleton, a retired victim assistance director for the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office “And extreme law enforcement opposition.”

A Caddo Parish judge con-

ACADIA

Continued from page 1B

who owns Reach4Communication located within the Economic Development District.

Police Jury President Beau Petitjean said the board is waiting to receive a legal opinion on whether the “use” portion of the sales and use tax was actually called for in the city’s ordinance, before further assessing possible changes.

“Right now we have reason to believe that the tax

ECHOLS

Continued from page 1B

the district but is running with the endorsement of President Donald Trump and Club for Growth, a powerful Washington, D.C.-based conservative group. Miguez said in an interview Tuesday that he has owned a house in south Baton Rouge since the late 1990s and that his family, which operates an offshore oil and gas business based in New Iberia, has owned “a bulk facility” in Baton Rouge. He did not specify the locations of the house or business.

Miguez also noted that he graduated from LSU as an undergraduate and obtained a law degree from Southern University in Baton Rouge.

“For the people in Congressional District 5, what they should know is that if I’m fortunate enough to be elected — and when I’m elected as their next congressperson that I will make my Baton Rouge home my primary residence,” he said. “I want to live close to the people that I represent.”

The district includes East Baton Rouge, Livingston

victed Woods and the baby’s father, Emmanuel Scott, from a 2006 indictment. Under Louisiana’s unusually broad murder statute, prosecutors needed only to prove the pair was negligent for not taking the infant to the doctor before his death.

Little Emmanuel was born premature at just over three pounds and spent more than a month in neonatal intensive care at Tulane Medical Center He went home at 5 pounds, about three weeks before the hurricane hit. The family evacuated to Shreveport, landing first at a sports arena, then a motel and at last a rented house.

Woods told the parole board that the baby was throwing up his formula “in large amounts” and that she’d run out of vouchers for the federal program to help low-income, postpartum mothers and children known as WIC.

“I didn’t know what to do. I made the devastating decision to change my child’s milk. And he was taking his milk,” she said “I thought he was doing better, but he wasn’t doing better I didn’t know how to go about anything but survival mode.

“I know he’s gone because of me. I didn’t mean to take his life.”

Woods had support for her release from her four living children, one of whom testified from California.

“It is my belief that we all need her — her children,” Nie-John Woods said. “We all serve the sentence with our mom.”

Leone Fitzgerald, director of victim assistance for the District Attorney’s Office in Caddo Parish, told the panel they were “getting a little tired of hearing about” Hurricane Katrina as a factor in the infant’s death

“It had to be chaotic and stressful and unprecedented, but it wasn’t a reason for Ms. Woods to not feed her baby,” Fitzgerald said She argued that the child left the NICU “thriving” but gained only 7 ounces over 41 days in Woods’ care and weighed less than 6 pounds when he died at about 5 months old

“So, that’s unacceptable,”

may not actually include a “use” element, and we’re waiting for information on that,” he said “Moving forward, we are investigating to see how we can eliminate the use element of the tax or if we need to. That way any time they purchase materials they won’t have to pay that 2%.”

Discussions surfaced at a Police Jury committee meeting earlier this month when Domingue admonished the Police Jury for what he viewed as the deceptive implementation of the tax. He claimed he and other business owners affected by the

and the Florida parishes and extends up the Mississippi River to northeast Louisiana. It was designed to elect a Republican.

State Rep. Dixon McMakin, R-Baton Rouge, dropped out of the race Monday because of Trump’s endorsement of Miguez.

Echols said Trump’s endorsement of Miguez does not dissuade him.

“I feel adamant that the person who runs and represents the congressional district needs to live and work in the congressional district,” he said in an interview Tuesday “You shouldn’t have to cross three congressional districts to get to the people you’re supposed to be representing every day.”

Echols, who will be 49 on Wednesday, was first elected to the House in 2019 and has a solid conservative voting record.

In an unusual move, Gov. Jeff Landry backed Echols in December to be chosen as the leader of the House Republican Caucus. Echols defeated state Rep. John Illg, of Metairie, in a close race among House Republicans Governors have not traditionally sought to elect caucus chairs, but Landry said Echols would help push his

she said.

“No rational person could look at that poor emaciated baby and not do something. Take him to the emergency room, take him to the doctor Take him to a fire station and drop him off where he would have a chance,” she said. “I think there were a lot of options that these people chose not to take.”

Woods was “not a disciplinary problem” and “low risk and low needs,” prison warden Kristen Thomas told the board.

“Her record over the past 20 years shows real accountability, growth, and rehabilitation,” said Andrew Hundley, executive director of the Louisiana Parole Project, in a statement after Tuesday’s denial.

“We believe she poses no risk to public safety and should be given the chance to reunite with her family and apply the education and skills she acquired during her incarceration.”

All three board members on the panel that voted on Woods’ application were appointed by Gov Jeff Landry

Member Daniel “Danny” Barras endorsed her release, pointing to numerous prison programs she’s completed and a low-risk assessment He described Woods as “a true first offender This is the first crime you ever committed.

Board member Jerrie LeDoux also voted for Woods’ release

“You pose no risk to public safety You have done an excellent job of rehabilitation. Your conduct has been very good and plans for reentry are excellent,” she said “But at this time, you needed a unanimous vote.”

Woods would have been released in September had the board granted it, said Francis Abbott, executive director of the Louisiana Board of Pardons & Committee on Parole. She’ll now need to wait five years if she wants to reapply. Woods is due to be released from prison without parole with credit for “good time” in 10 years. The boy’s father continues to serve life.

change were unaware of the hearing.

In accordance with state law, the parish was required only to publish two notices in the its legal journal, the Crowley Post-Signal, and hold a public hearing. State law allows economic development districts to be formed without voter approval if the district does not include residents.

The hearing held in early January 2023 did not receive any comments from local businesses.

“We were completely blindsided by this,” he said. “I only found out because I

agenda through the Republican-controlled Legislature

Echols said he won’t step down as caucus chair during the upcoming legislative session, when he will also be campaigning for the congressional seat.

The Republican primary is on May 16. Unaffiliated voters can vote in the primary The top two finishers, if no candidate receives more than 50%, will compete in a June 27 runoff.

With undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Louisiana at Monroe, Echols has worked for a health care group and as a developer of historic properties. He and his wife Christie, an architect, recently opened the Hotel Monroe in two restored buildings in the city’s downtown.

Echols served on the Monroe City Council for one term until his election to the state House. No prominent Democrats have announced plans to run for the seat.

Larry Davis, a member of the Livingston Republican Parish Executive Committee, had announced plans to run for the 5th Congressional District but on Tuesday

Hall of Famer Drew

Brees to ride in Bacchus

Custom float planned for Saints legend

BY DOUG MacCASH Staff writer

Last week, beloved former New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, class of 2026. On Sunday, fans will get a chance to congratulate No. 9 when he rides atop a custom-decorated float in the Bacchus parade, according to float builder Barry Kern. Kern said the celebratory float he’s assembling for the quarterback’s ride will include a statue of Brees plus an LED lighted sign that will read, in part,

“Thank you, Who Dat Nation.” It won’t be the famed QB’s first Bacchus ride. In 2010, he wore the crown as monarch of the spectacular Uptown procession. Brees began his career with the Saints in the dark days after Hurricane Katrina. He went on to be the champion the recovering city needed, as he led the team to its first Super Bowl victory in 2010. Brees completed his career with the Black and Gold 10 years later,

Continued from page 1B

department rolled out a new software that performs automated release date calculations, Dickerson added. In his letter to the legislative auditor, Westcott said the agency implemented a second software system to “automate and standardize the audit process.”

For years, Louisiana’s prison system has been under scrutiny for regularly holding inmates past their release dates, an issue often referred to as overdetention. The practice has drawn criticism from federal judges and investigators, and spurred multiple lawsuits.

Last year, corrections officials said they had made major strides toward fixing the issue, and that it would not be a problem going forward.

have a national distributor who let me know Nobody’s reading the paper to find out if new taxes are going to be imposed. They have a list of all the parcels in the district. All the property owners should have been directly informed.”

The ordinance responsible for creating the 2% increase was first proposed by former jury president Chance Henry now a state representative Henry attended last week’s committee meeting where he cautioned the police jurors against removing the tax entirely, calling it a necessary funding mecha-

said he plans to challenge U.S. Rep. Cleo Fields, D-Baton Rouge, as he runs for reelection in the 6th Congres-

William Most, an attorney who represents people with overdetention claims, said he believed the issue was ongoing.

“This report corroborates what we know,” he said of the audit “They still have not taken the steps necessary to ensure that inmates’ sentences are calculated correctly and inmates are released on time.”

However, release date miscalculations have not been the primary force behind overdetention in Louisiana, according to previous public statements from corrections officials as well as two class-action lawsuits against the state. They have instead blamed the fact that prisoners are often held so long in pretrial detention that they are eligible for release upon sentencing, but delays in the calculation process prevent that from happening in a timely manner

nism for future infrastructure projects in the parish. Petitjean was not a police juror at that time.

“Municipalities and parishes design economic districts to capitalize on businesses looking to come to the parish,” Pettijean said. “Right now that’s where people are looking to develop. This will fund future infrastructure and drainage projects. Our tax structure alone does not afford all that the parish needs.”

The Economic Development District has generated around $250,000 since its creation but none of it has been spent on infrastructure improvements, Petitjean said.

sional District. Capitol bureau reporter Alyse Pfeil contributed to this article.

“We’re looking to develop sewer systems for some of these businesses coming to Acadia Parish so they don’t have to use a septic tank,” he said. “It’s simple things like that. My hope is that local business leaders will see that this is something we can all benefit from.”

SPORTS

OMAHA OBSTACLES

LSU catcher Cade Arrambide lookstothe dugout between batters against SoutheasternLouisiana on April 29 at AlexBox Stadium.

LSU is hoping for abig year from Arrambide, whoisthe only catcher on the roster withSEC experience.

Five areasLSU needstoexcel in forrepeatshotatnationaltitle

BY KOKI RILEY Staff writer

LSU baseball heads into the seasonas the reigning national champions andthe No. 1or2team in every national preseason poll.

So what possibly could go wrong?

Since this is baseball, the answeriseverything. And with the start of another season just around thecorner,there are plenty of things LSUwill needtoovercome, or avoid, to repeat last season’s success. Here are five keys for LSU toreturn to Omahaand wina thirdchampionship in four years.

Catcher

LSU entered last season with asimilar question mark. After losingthreecatchers with starting experience, how would the Tigers fare behind the plate while relying on an Indiana Statetransfer with little catching experience, afreshman,ajuniorcollege transfer and aDayton transfer?

Everything worked outin2025. Luis Hernandez didn’thit for the same power he showed at IndianaState, but his solid defense provedtobeinvaluable during the national title run. But Hernandez is off to professional baseball, and LSUwill turn to anew starter behind the plate. The job is now sopho-

more Cade Arrambide’s, and the hope is that his experiencestarting midweek games andoccasionally filling in for HernandezinSEC playlast season can translate into strong results this season.

LSUhas alot ridingonArrambide. He was the top high school catcher who wasn’t selected in the 2024 draft and has the potential to be amiddle-of-the-order bat. Last year,Arrambide was araw freshman. This season, theTigers need astrong defensive backstop whocontributes morewiththe bat than he did ayear ago

After Arrambide, LSU has one less backup behind theplate this season. Freshman Omar Serna is theNo. 2, but he is raw.Eddie Yamin returns after redshirting last year as atransfer from Dayton.

Power

For thefirst time in coach Jay Johnson’s tenure, LSU will enter the year without a hitter who’sexpected to blast at least20 homeruns.

BY MATTHEW PARAS Staff writer

If Derek Carr comes out of retirement this offseason, as is areported possibility, theNew Orleans Saints still controlhis rights.

That means if anotherteam wants Carr,the Saints andthatteam would have towork outatrade for the quarterback as long as he’s under contract. This isn’t entirely new territory for the black and gold. The Saints did the same with their former coach just three years ago when they traded Sean Payton to the Denver Broncos

Will arepeat scenario unfold with Carr? It’stoo early to say.But with Carr reportedly healthyfrom the shoulder injury that caused himtostepaway, let’stackle some key questionsinthe eventthe formerstartingquarterback wantstoplayagain.

Fits forCarr

There could be somewhere between six andeight teams in the market for anew startingquarterback, but not all of thosewould besuitors forCarr.

As much as the 34-year-old seemingly would love to rejoin the LasVegasRaiders, Carr’s former team is lined up to take Indianaquarterback Fernando Mendoza withthe first overallpickinthe draft. Cross them off the list.Others, such as the Cleveland Browns and MiamiDolphins, mightnot

have theright situation to entice Carr to get off the couch. Here are three teams that make sense: Minnesota Vikings: Carr did well in asimilar offense under Klint Kubiak, and Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell has areputation for being aquarterback whisperer.That whispering didn’texactly go as planned withJ.J. McCarthy,but if Minnesota wants to moveoff its young signal-caller,Carr could fit nicely intoaplace that has asuperstar receiver and astrong defense. Pittsburgh Steelers: If Aaron Rodgers retires, the Steelerswill need areplacement under center MikeMcCarthy spoke glowingly about 2025

BY REED DARCEY Staff writer

Kevin Foote

Expect some twists from UL baseball roster in ’26

There are somethings about the UL baseball roster that don’t seem to add up.

Let’sstart with the projected weekend pitching rotation. When newsbroke during the offseason that ace left-hander Chase Morgan likely would be unavailable this season, the lack of depth seemed to be aconcern. And yet, it seemsthe weekend rotation wasone of the easiest answers in January.Coach Matt Deggs madethat clear two weeks before Friday’s2 p.m.season opener against Missouri State.

“I think it waspretty clear cut, even going back to the fall,” Deggs said. “With the emergence of Herm (Andrew Herrmann), I think that wasgoing to be the biggest question markcoming into August. But with the adjustments he’smade, it’spretty clear where everybody fits.”

San Jacinto transfer Ty Roman will start Friday and likely Herrmann on Saturday,while JR Tollett is expected to start Sunday Then there’sthe other side of the battery.ULwas thrilled about the extra year of eligibility fan favorite catcher Jose Torres received last year because he began his career at ajunior college.

But with the season set to start this weekend, Torres isn’tready to open the season while still recovering from aknee injury Deggs said Monday it could be another week or two, but that’s only aguess.

“It’sgoing to be the amount of pain he can play in and do agood job in,” Deggs said. That doesn’tmean Deggs is worried about the position. For one, he’sgot Mississippi State transfer and expected designated hitter Steven Spalitta as an option. And 6-foot-2, 190-pound true freshman Colt Brownhas intrigued the coaching staffduring

The LSU women’sbasketball team is threateningtobreak a 35-year-old NCAA scoring record and shatter a40-year-old SEC record by the end of the season. The No. 6Tigers (22-3, 8-3 SEC) are approaching the stretch run of their SEC slate, and they’re still scoring 96.6 points per game. Thataverage leads the country, and it’sonly atenth of apoint shy of the highest markinDivision Ihistory,which Providence set when it scored 96.7ppg in 199091. It’salso well ahead of the SEC’s top all-time scoring average. Georgia hasheld that record (89.2 ppg) since 1985-86. Ared-hot start to the season is buoying LSU’seye-popping scoringaverage. Aproductive string of league matchups haskeptit stabilized The Tigers are scoring 82.1 ppg in SEC play,which ranks second in the conference. They’ve hit the 90-point thresholdfourtimes, andthey’ve climbedoverthe 100-point markonce when they throttled No.23Alabama103-63 on Feb. 1. In their 14 nonconference games, the Tigers scored 108 ppg. Theyhit thecentury mark in each of their first eight contests, settinganNCAArecordin theprocess,and finishedthe slate with 11 100-point performances —almost twice as many as any otherDivisionIteam collected across November and December

Campbell talks injury, Super Bowl woes

BY KYLE HIGHTOWER

AP sportswriter

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — New England Patriots left tackle Will Campbell revealed Tuesday that a torn ligament in his knee sent him to injured reserve for four games late in the regular season.

Campbell, a former standout at LSU, had a disastrous performance in the the Super Bowl, giving up a pair of sacks on quarterback Drake Maye as the Seattle Seahawks sent several blitzes to his side of the line. According to Next Gen Stats, Campbell allowed 14 pressures, the most allowed by any NFL player in a game this season.

“It obviously wasn’t 100%,” Campbell said about his knee. “I mean, I don’t think when you tear a ligament in your knee, it’s not going to be how it was before, but I was healthy enough to go. I’m not going to say that it held me back, but it wasn’t the same as it was before, obviously.”

Campbell was carted off the field in the second half of the Patriots’ 26-20 win at Cincinnati in Week 12. That ended the 2025 fourth overall draft pick’s string of 12 straight starts as Maye’s blindside protector. But he started the season finale and all four playoff games. He said he understands the criticism he received for his Super Bowl performance.

“It comes with the job when you don’t perform,” Campbell said. “Obviously, I was picked high, paid a lot, so people expect a certain thing, and I expect more myself. So, whenever I don’t perform obviously it sucks, but it doesn’t suck for anyone more than it sucks for me.”

Patriots coach Mike Vrabel said he’s confident Campbell will grow from this season and doesn’t plan to move him to another position.

“He’s 22 years old. He’s our left tackle. He’ll get better He’ll get

stronger,” Vrabel said. “We aren’t moving Will to guard, center, tight end or anywhere else.”

Maye, who has developed a close friendship with Campbell off the

field, said he believes his future is bright.

“The expectations of a firstround pick, I think he’s dealt with so much this year,” Maye said.

“It’s going to be great for him in the future He’s going to be a great player in this league, he already is a great player in this league. I love Will. I look forward to playing with him for a long time.”

Maye also said he doesn’t plan to have any surgical procedures on his throwing shoulder this offsea-

son, after he received a pain-relieving injection before the 29-13 Super Bowl loss.

“Just get some time off. Time’s the best healer Definitely just need time off,” Maye said. “Nothing that needs anything to be done. Just some time away and time to get some rest and time away from football.”

The Patriots returned to the team facility to have meetings with the coaching staff and pack up their lockers before heading out for the offseason.

Despite the long playoff run, Maye said he doesn’t think he put any extra stress on his arm this season.

“I think it’s a case of having one hit in the AFC championship game that was just kind of unfortunate,” Maye said. “Unfortunate timing, the two weeks (before the Super Bowl) was great to have off to have a chance to be out there for my guys. You can’t blame things on injuries. Things happen like this all the time in the league. You can’t (blame) it on one little thing, the shoulder I was feeling like I was able to make throws in the game and was myself.”

Maye threw two touchdown passes but was sacked six times, had two interceptions and lost a fumble that Seattle turned into a touchdown.

Seahawks ‘Dark Side’ defense a worthy successor

Seattle has shown that defense can still dominate in the NFL

BY ARNIE STAPLETON AP pro football writer

Undeterred by all the rules favoring the offense and quarterbacks bringing more athleticism than ever to the field, the Seattle Seahawks verified that defense can still dominate the NFL in 2026. Seattle’s Mike Macdonald became the first head coach to win a Super Bowl as his team’s primary defensive play caller when the Seahawks topped the New England Patriots 29-13 on Sunday, a triumph fueled by their “Dark Side” defense — the worthy successor to the “Legion of Boom” that brought home their first Lombardi Trophy 12 years earlier

It may not be a one-off, either

Three teams shifted toward defensive-minded leadership this coaching cycle with a trio of defensive coordinators getting head coaching jobs.

The Tennessee Titans hired former 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh, who used to coach the New York Jets. The Miami Dolphins hired Green Bay Packers defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley and the Baltimore Ravens turned to Los Angeles Chargers defensive coordinator Jesse Minter

Macdonald, 38, who served as the Ravens’ defensive coordinator for two years before replacing Pete Carroll in Seattle two years ago, is the first head coach with primarily defensive roots to lift the Lombardi Trophy since Bill Belichick following the 2018 season. Macdonald’s defense dominated the Super Bowl from the start and

And McDaniels needed to adjust way quicker than he did. Through three quarters, the Patriots had nine punts, five three-and-outs and just 78 yards of offense.

McDaniels never protected his young QB by calling for more handoffs or quick screens, even though rookie left tackle Will Campbell — the fourth overall pick out of LSU in last year’s NFL draft — allowed a whopping 14 pressures in the Super Bowl.

Given how the Super Bowl played out, there are two other former Broncos head coaches who probably deserve another shot at being a head coach before McDaniels: Vic Fangio and Vance Joseph.

Verlander returns to Tigers with one-year contract

LAKELAND,Fla.— For his 21st season in the majors, Justin Verlander is going back to the very beginning of his career

Verlander returned to the Detroit Tigers on Tuesday, agreeing to a $13 million, one-year contract with his first big league team. The three-time Cy Young Award winner joins an improved rotation fronted by Tarik Skubal and Framber Valdez, who also signed with Detroit in free agency Verlander, 42, went 183-114 with a 3.49 ERA while spending his first 13 seasons in Detroit. He won his first Cy Young Award and was AL MVP when he had a 24-5 record and a 2.40 ERA in 2011.

Verlander was traded to Houston in August 2017 and helped the Astros win the World Series that same year and again in 2022.

Mets shortstop Lindor to visit hand specialist

PORT ST LUCIE, Fla. — New York Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor is being evaluated for a stress reaction in his left hand.

Lindor experienced some soreness in the area around his left hand and wrist over the past couple days. David Stearns, the president of baseball operations for New York, said Lindor is going to visit a hand specialist on Wednesday to check his hamate bone.

“It is possible this will result in hamate surgery If it does, that’s a six-week recovery, which puts us right at opening day,” Stearns said. Lindor, 32, hit 267 with 31 homers, 86 RBIs and 31 steals in 160 games with New York last year. The fivetime All-Star was left off Puerto Rico’s roster for the World Baseball Classic over insurance coverage

LeBron will no longer qualify for All-NBA honors

LOS ANGELES LeBron James sat out of the Los Angeles Lakers’ game against the San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday night due to left foot arthritis, a decision that will prevent him from qualifying for consideration for his 22nd straight appearance on an AllNBA team.

James has been on one of the three All-NBA postseason teams in each of his last 21 seasons, but the Spurs game was the 18th he has missed this season. Players must play in at least 65 games to be considered for end-of-season awards under the NBA’s current rules.

James was selected for the AllStar Game this weekend. So was his teammate Luka Doncic, who was the leading vote-getter

Indiana plans for statue of former coach Knight

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Indiana plans to build a bronze statue of longtime coach Bob Knight inside Assembly Hall, where he led the Hoosiers to national championships in 1976, 1981 and 1987.

The announcement came Monday night while the Hoosiers were playing Oregon in a Big Ten game — and on the same night the school celebrated the 1975-76 team that remains the last undefeated national champ in Division I men’s basketball.

Clara, Calif.

held the Patriots out of the end zone until the fourth quarter The Seahawks sacked Drake Maye six times and forced him into a pair of costly turnovers they turned into 14 points. They had three takeaways overall.

Seattle’s defense made sure it didn’t matter that Sam Darnold only threw for one touchdown and couldn’t do much in the red zone.

“It’s insane man,” Seattle linebacker Ernest Jones said. “I’ve never been around a bunch of guys where literally nobody thought it was a Super Bowl. It was just our next game and that’s how we approached it. And defensively, we came out and said it early in the year: To win the Super Bowl, it was going to be on our backs, so like I said, I’ll be damned if we get one game away and this defense doesn’t show up like we’re supposed to.”

In the lead-up to the Super Bowl, NBC analyst Cris Collinsworth had high praise for Patriots of-

fensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, who stewarded Maye into an MVP-worthy season and helped him navigate a 10-7 win at snowy Denver in the AFC championship despite throwing for just 86 yards. This was McDaniels’ 10th Super Bowl as an assistant and it turned out to be his worst. He never took the pressure off Maye, who had a painkilling injection in his throwing shoulder before the game and was hounded relentlessly throughout. Maye conquered three top-5 defenses on his way to the Super Bowl in his second season, but he wasn’t up to the task against the Seahawks, who sported the NFL’s top-ranked scoring defense.

“We got to be better with the football and make better decisions and I got to make better throws when the game goes like that,” Maye said. “I got to make some throws to help us move the football.”

Fangio, Philadelphia’s defensive coordinator, helped the Eagles win last year’s Super Bowl by throttling Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs 40-22. Joseph, Denver’s defensive coordinator, has seen his stock rise by leading a unit that’s collected an NFL-high 141 sacks over the last two years, including the playoffs. He interviewed with the Raiders, Cardinals, Titans, Falcons, Ravens and Giants this cycle but didn’t get that coveted second chance this year

Other defensive play-callers who might find their phones ringing a year from now, especially if another Super Bowl is dominated by defense like this one was, include Chris Shula of the Rams, Brian Flores of the Vikings and Anthony Campanile of the Jaguars.

Seattle’s dominance Sunday raised the question about where the “Dark Side” ranks among alltime great defenses. Right next to the “Legion of Boom,” maybe?

“I know we’re the best defense this year,” said Seattle cornerback Devon Witherspoon, “and that’s all that matters.”

Officials say Knight’s statue will be placed next to one honoring the 1975-76 title team and will be funded by a longtime basketball donor who wants to remain anonymous. Knight died in October 2023 and still ranks sixth among all coaches in victories.

Super Bowl, halftime show views fall short of records Sunday night’s Super Bowl and Bad Bunny fell short of setting records for most watched U.S. broadcast and halftime show Seattle’s 29-13 victory over New England averaged 124.9 million viewers on NBC, Peacock, Telemundo, NBC Sports Digital, and NFL+, according to Nielsen’s Big Data + Panel rating system. That fell short of the 127.7 million U.S. viewers that tuned in for Philadelphia’s 40-22 victory over Kansas City last year on Fox. Bad Bunny’s halftime show averaged 128.2 million viewers from 8:15-8:30 p.m. Eastern. That would make it the fourth-most watched halftime behind Kendrick Lamar (133.5 million, 2025), Michael Jackson (133.4

and Usher (129.3

Murray returns to Pels’ practice

BY ROD WALKER Staff writer

Dejounte Murray sat on the bench Monday night cheering on his teammates as the New Orleans Pelicans rolled to an easy victory over the Sacramento Kings. How much longer before he’s actually able to join them on the court in games remains to be seen.

“No timeline yet,” Pelicans interim coach James Borrego. “I think we’ll have a better idea after the (All-Star) break.”

For now, Borrego is pleased just to have Murray back in the building.

Murray, just more than a year removed from tearing his Achilles, is back in New Orleans and at the team’s practice facility after rehabbing the injury He was limited in practice Sunday and

ä Miami at New Orleans. 7 P.M

WEDNESDAy, GCSEN

Tuesday

“It’s great to have him back on the court,” Borrego said. “That will ramp up over the next couple of days. We’ll get into the All-Star break and see where we go from there.

Murray played in 31 games for the Pelicans last season, his first with the team after being acquired in a trade with the Atlanta Hawks. He fractured his left hand in the season opener and missed the next 17 games. He played in 30 more games before the seasonending injury against the Boston Celtics in the Smoothie King Center

“We’d love to have him back on the court,” teammate Trey Mur-

phy said. “But his presence here has been great.”

Rookie point guard Jeremiah Fears hasn’t played a game with Murray yet, but he also is glad to see him back at practice.

“It’s been great so far,” Fears said. “He’s been by our side talking to us and asking us questions and motivating us. Just continuing to encourage confidence.”

Murray averaged 17.5 points and 7.4 assists in his 31 games last season. His best game came against the Utah Jazz when he scored 26 points to go with 11 assists and nine rebounds.

It’s unclear where Murray will fit into the rotation if he returns this season. The Pelicans are just 15-40 heading into Wednesday’s game against the Miami Heat, but they are 6-5 since the starting lineup of Zion Williamson, Mur-

phy, Herb Jones, Saddiq Bey and Derik Queen emerged. Jones has been handling most of the point guard duties when playing with the starting five.

Murray hasn’t talked with the media since media day, but he is expected to speak after the AllStar break.

“It’s just great having him out there,” Borrego said. “I’m so proud of him. What a devastating injury But the way he’s handled it, the way he’s attacked it, he deserves a ton of credit. He and his team and our team. The entire performance team deserve a ton of credit. You can feel his presence, his leadership, his confidence. It’s a massive boost to this organization.”

Email Rod Walker at rwalker@theadvocate.com.

Kubiak ready to rebuild Raiders as coach

BY DAVID SCHOEN Las Vegas Review-Journal (TNS)

LAS VEGAS The Las Vegas Raiders introduced Klint Kubiak as their new head coach Tuesday Kubiak, who turns 39 next week, was the offensive coordinator for the Seattle Seahawks and is coming off a 29-13 Super Bowl victory over the New England Patriots on Sunday He also served as the Saints offensive coordinator in 2024.

Kubiak spoke with the media at the Raiders’ practice facility in Henderson and was asked a wide range of questions, from the makeup of his coaching staff to potentially selecting Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza with the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft.

Kubiak — whose father, Gary, won the Super Bowl in 2016 with the Denver Broncos — also was asked about being the first fatherson coaches in NFL history to win a Super Bowl.

“Is that a real stat? Is that a real deal?” he asked.

Yes it is.

Kubiak also said he had a cup of coffee with star defensive end Maxx Crosby on Tuesday morning and is looking forward to continuing those conversations.

“We want him to be part of our success going forward,” Kubiak said.

Kubiak said he had a list of can-

Las Vegas Raiders new head coach Klint Kubiak speaks during an introductory news conference at the team’s training facility on Tuesday in Henderson, Nev.

didates for his assistants and is collaborating with general manager John Spytek on building his staff.

“We’re trying to put together a great staff of teachers. I think if we can put together a great staff and get the players up to date on these playbooks and let the results speak for themselves,” Ku-

biak said.

Raiders running back Ashton Jeanty fell short of expectations as a rookie working behind an offensive line that struggled from the start. Kubiak was asked about Jeanty and noted he saw the firstround pick play several times at Boise State.

“I’m very excited about his skill

set and what he brings. I’m very excited about his talent,” Kubiak said.

Kubiak said he is in the process of identifying candidates for his defensive coordinator

He noted he is more focused on establishing a physical style of play and wants a defensive coordinator who coaches effort.

He also was asked about Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza and whether that played a role in taking the head coach job with the Raiders, who own the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft.

Kubiak did not reference Mendoza by name and said they have “a lot of tape to watch” before determining who the team will select.

“The resources the Raiders have, having cap space, having the first pick, those all go into the decision,” he said.

Kubiak said he had the option to stay in Seattle as the offensive coordinator but called the opportunity to join the Raiders organization a “no-brainer.”

“The main thing is this is no ordinary job. This is the silver and black,” he said.

Spytek joked that Kubiak will get the day off Wednesday to celebrate the Seahawks’ Super Bowl victory

“He’s going to take a one-day hiatus, be in a parade and get back to work on Thursday,” Spytek said.

Commanders try two first-time coordinators

Coach Quinn made significant changes to his staff, headlined by OC Blough, DC Jones

BY BEN STANDIG

Associated Press

ASHBURN, Va. — Going from the highs of the 2024 NFC championship to a 5-12 record last season led Dan Quinn to consider changes. The Washington Commanders coach made several significant ones. Quinn formally introduced two key additions to his staff on Tuesday: offensive coordinator David Blough and defensive coordinator Daronte Jones. They replaced Kliff Kingsbury and Joe Whitt Jr Kingsbury, the former Arizona Cardinals head coach, and Whitt, a longtime Quinn colleague, moved on following the season.

“When there’s time for change, those are difficult conversations, discussions,” Quinn said. “At the end, you keep going back to what’s the best thing for the team.” Offensively, that will mean using quarterback Jayden Daniels more under center and having a balanced run-pass attack. Washington under Kingsbury was far and away the league leader in shotgun and no-huddle usage.

Quinn elevated Blough, 30, a retired NFL quarterback with only two years of coaching experience. Blough worked with Daniels as the assistant QB coach the past two seasons and will keep elements of Kingsbury’s system that appealed to the No. 2 pick in the 2024 draft.

“A new vision on how we want to go about it,” Quinn said.

Quinn emphasized that Daniels “Wasn’t part of the staff selection, but he drives a lot of the thinking.” The coach said he kept the 2024 Offensive Rookie of the Year in the loop throughout the process, including the decision to move on from Kingsbury.

Blough’s five-year professional playing career began in 2019 and included stops in Detroit (twice), Minnesota and Arizona. That

The Dan Marino trap just ensnared

BY DIETER KURTENBACH The Mercury News (TNS)

In 1985, Dan Marino arrived at Stanford Stadium as the undisputed future of football. He was the MVP in just his second season, a golden-armed titan who looked like he’d be making annual pilgrimages to the Super Bowl for the next fifteen years.

Then he ran into Bill Walsh’s West Coast offense and a San Francisco 49ers defense that turned his afternoon into a living nightmare. Marino never made it back. Not once.

Remind you of anyone?

Sunday in Santa Clara, Calif., the Drake Maye era didn’t just hit a speed bump; it hit a Mike Macdonald-sized brick wall. We watched the Seattle Seahawks’ legendary, no-subs, blitz-from-every-angle, swarm-everything defense turn the “Next Big Thing” — a babyfaced quarterback who lost out on MVP by just one vote into a deer in headlights. It wasn’t just a loss; it was a systemic dismantling of a narrative.

If you think this is just a “young guy learning” moment, you haven’t been paying attention to NFL history Saying “you’ll be back” is the lie we tell ourselves to make these beat downs palatable.

Take Super Bowl LVI Joe Burrow — second season, coming off a last-place finish with the cupcake schedule to match got sacked seven times by the Los Angeles Rams. We all said, “He’ll be back.” Well, it’s 2026, and that Super Bowl window feels like it’s been painted shut.

Or look at Maye’s childhood idol, Cam Newton. Ten years ago, in Super Bowl 50, he was the invincible force of nature. Then Von Miller happened. Seven sacks, a disastrous turnover margin, and a 2410 blowout later, Cam’s trajectory changed forever He never sniffed the Big Game again.

The NFL graveyard is filled with the careers of Colin Kaepernick, Chris Chandler, Boomer Esiason and Ken Anderson. These are the guys who dragged losing-record teams to the Super Bowl on the back of a magical turnaround season, blissfully unaware they were standing on their career peak.

conference on Tuesday in Ashburn, Va

meant working with three notable offensive-minded coaches — Ben Johnson, Kevin O’Connell and Kingsbury who run different schemes.

“You feel like every step along the way you prepare for these opportunities,” Blough said about his fast rise “Surprise may not be the be exact feeling. It might be grateful.”

Jones spent the previous four seasons with the Minnesota Vikings, including the final three as the defensive passing game coordinator and defensive backs coach under Brian Flores, the team’s defensive coordinator

with a penchant for blitzing. The Commanders’ defense struggled last season and requires upgrades at all three levels this offseason.

Jones, who was raised as a Washington fan while growing up in the Maryland suburbs, demurred when asked for specifics on his formation approach.

“It’s not how they line up, it’s how they wind up,” Jones said. Whatever changes Blough and Jones pitched, Quinn bought in.

“I felt their vision right away and the energy they have for it,” Quinn said. “I know we may talk of two first-time coordinators, but I also recognize everyone needs

their first stop. I really feel like we’re going to set them up to succeed.”

Other coaching staff changes announced include hiring former Falcons QB coach D.J. Williams for the same role in Washington Williams is the son of Doug Williams, who led Washington to a Super Bowl title in the 1987 season. Wes Welker, longtime NFL receiver and returner will join the offense in an unspecified role after spending 2025 as a personnel analyst. Washington also agreed to a 1-year contract extension with longtime punter Tress Way.

If you’re going to the Super Bowl on your first real run after collective ineptitude the way Joe Montana did in 1981 (following a 6-10 season) or Kurt Warner did in 1999 (after a 4-12 campaign) — you better win the damn thing. Because the NFL is a laboratory and the Seahawks just published the white paper on how to break Maye.

The ’25 Patriots were paper tigers. I said it all campaign. You can point to the wins, but I’ll point to the tape. And after the worst playoff run of any quarterback in modern NFL history — posting an expected points added (EPA) of minus-41.7 across four games — the numbers and eye test have aligned.

The Patriots came to Santa Clara on a fluke of scheduling, opponent ineptitude and health (for them, against others).

Now Maye and the Patriots are staring down a 2026 schedule featuring first-place opponents, a gauntlet of prime-time games, and a target on their backs that wasn’t there in September Brock Purdy might eventually face this same cold reality when he hangs up the cleats: “almost” doesn’t guarantee a “next time.” (Purdy’s childhood idol? Marino. Hence No. 13.)

Maye has the goods. He’ll probably be a perennial MVP candidate. He might throw for 4,500 yards, and with some dimes that will make your jaw drop. He’s Marinolike in that way But after last night’s humiliation — the culmination of four weeks of exposure — and knowing that the NFL really stands for “Not For Long,” I’m betting he ends up like Marino in the only way that actually matters. Maye will have the stats, the endorsements, and the Pro Bowl nods. He’ll be the guy every talking head picks to “finally get over the hump” every August for the next decade. But the hump just got a lot steeper

MI LA N CO RT IN A

Bilka, U.S. rout Canada

youthful Team USA sweeps GroupA in preliminaryround

BY JOHNWAWROW Associated Press

MALININLEADS AFTER NEARPERFECTSHORT PROGRAM: Ilia

Malinin playfully threwacouple of jabs at aTVcamera while skatingoff the ice Tuesdaynight, the pressure of his first Olympics having seemingly vanished following ateam gold medal and anear-perfect shortprogram to begin the men’scompetition.

The American wunderkind, pictured above,landed apair of quadruple jumps, another jaw-dropping backflip and his signature “raspberry twist” for108.16 points to takea five-point lead overyuma Kagiyama of Japan into the decisivefree skate Friday.

SHIFFRIN OUT OF THE MEDALS

AGAIN: Makethat sevenstraight races without amedal for Mikaela Shiffrin at the Winter Olympics.

The American skiing standout was given the ideal platformtowin the newteam combined event after partner Breezy Johnson led the opening downhill leg on Tuesday. Shiffrin was the last racer out in the slalom and had the 15th-fastest time dropping the U.S. to fourth place Ariane Raedler and KatharinaHuber of Austria wongold, while Americans Paula Moltzan and Jacqueline Wiles took bronze.

KLAEBONEARS GOLD MEDAL

RECORD: Don’t be surprised if Johannes Høsflot Klæbo soon holds the all-time record for gold medals at the Winter Games.The Norwegian cross-countrystar powered to his secondstraight Olympic gold and seventh of his career by winning the men’ssprint. He was acomfortable 0.8 seconds ahead of Ben Ogden of theUnited States.

Klæbo movedtoone gold behind three compatriots, all of whom retired with arecord-tying eight.

SWEDISH SIBLINGS WIN CURLING’S MIXED DOUBLES: Sweden’sIsabella and Rasmus Wranå wongold in mixed doubles curling by beating U.S. pair Cory Thiesse and KoreyDropkin. Atwo-point playbyIsabella off the final rock of atight match sealeda 6-5 win for the duo.

The Americans wona first medal in Olympic mixed doubles, andThiesse became the first American woman to capture amedal in curling

TAUBITZ ADDS TO GERMAN DOMINANCE IN LUGE: Goldin women’ssingles lugewenttoGermany —again. Julia Taubitz became the 13th winner from Germanyin17 editions, finishing nearly afull second ahead of Elina Bota of Latvia after four runs overtwo days.Ashley Farquharson took bronze, the third singles medal everfor USA Lugeat the Olympics and matching the best finish by an American women’sslider An Olympic gold completes Taubitz’s resume.

MILAN HannahBilka scored twice, and the United States’ youthand speedoverwhelmed a Canadian women’shockey team missingits captainina 5-0win at the Milan Cortina Games on Tuesday

Thelopsidedvictoryclinched first place for the U.S. in Group Aentering thequarterfinals and continued confirming why the Americans entered thetournament as favorites. Team USA sweptall four preliminary-round games by acombined score of 20-1 and brought back memories of how aCanadianteaminits prime rolled to winning gold at the 2022 Beijing Games.

The tableshave sinceturned, anditwas evident on the scoresheet from aroster that featuresseven players still in college

The University of Wisconsin’s Caroline Harvey hadagoal and two assists, with Badger teammatesLaila Edwards and Kristen Simms alsoscoring. The goal was Edwards’ first in her Olympic debut in being the first Black woman to representthe U.S. University of Minnesota captain AbbeyMurphy set up three goals.

Aerin Frankel stopped 20 shots forher third winand second shutout in her first Olympic tournament. And even 36-year-old captainHilary Knight added an assist —the 32nd Olympic point of her career to tie Jenny Potter for most byaU.S. women’shockey player

match on TuesdayinMilan.

Canada, meantime, opened tentatively,and then ranintopenalty problemsminus its longtime leader,Marie-Philip Poulin.

Poulin was ruled out about five hoursbeforepuckdrop, and a day after she limpedoff with an apparent lower-body injury in thefirst period of a5-1 win over Czechia. The 34-year-old Poulin is considered day to day,though it’sunclear when the player nicknamed “Captain Clutch” will be available for Canada’sclosing game of the preliminary round against Finland on Thursday AndPoulin’savailabilityisuncertain for Saturday,when Canada is scheduledtoplayits quarterfinal game. The U.S. will open thequarter-

finals against host nation Italy, which went2-2 in clinching the thirdand finalGroup Bplayoff spot. The Americans are two-time Olympic gold medalists. Whatever “O, Canada”buzz there was amidalarge Maple Leaf flag-wavingcapacity crowd quickly dampened on adrizzly day outside the11,600-seat Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena. And thesoundtrack instead became the sound of the U.S.goal song, Lynyrd Skynyrd’s“Free Bird.” Harvey opened the scoring 3:45 in by driving in from the left point and snapping ashot beating AnnRenee Desbiens. The Americans’ speed and quick-strike ability were evident on theirnext goal when Murphy

chased down Harvey’spass in the right corner.Murphy immediatelyspun andsentano-look pass Bilka converted by driving to the net.

Simms made it 3-0byjamming the puck over the line 72 seconds into thesecondperiodand Murphy set up Bilka for another onetimer somesix minutes later Desbiens allowed five goals on 27 shots and was pulled after Edwards scored with 8:07 left. She was replaced by Emerance Maschmeyer,who finished with five saves. The U.S. has now defeated Canada in seven straight meetings, dating to thepreliminary round and gold-medal gameofthe world championships in April.

Eagerlyawaitingthe next miraclemoment

The Olympics are back.

My Olympic flag is up, flutteringonmyfront porch in the unseasonablywarm February breeze

My sleep hours are down. I nodded off while writing this. Iblamethe Games. Happily Andthe seven-hourtime difference between here and Italy

Iwas fortunate enough to attend the1996 Atlanta Olympics and cover the2024 Paris Olympics. Ididn’t want to missanything either time. I still feel that way I’ve always held aspecialawe for Olympic athletes. Yes, more of them are millionaires now, like the NHL players who will start competing Wednesday. But mostofthem are sacrificingand scraping by for the sake of their dreams. For thechance to put it all out there. Forthe opportunity to call themselves Olympians forever “I mademyfirst Olympics in 1976,” former U.S. men’sgymnast BartConner,now agymnastics broadcaster,said. He was here lastweek at the premiere of thedocumentaryonformer LSUcoach D-D Breaux.

“I ended up placing 46th. I didn’tmedal and Iwasn’tacontender.But Idoremember my coach told me at that moment, ‘For the rest of your life, people will refer to you as an Olympian.’”

U.S. gold medalist Breezy Johnson speeds down the course during the downhill portion of the women’s team combined event on Tuesday in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy

Conner endured theU.S. boycottofthe 1980 Moscow Olympics and returnedin1984 to win twogold medals.But that first experience taught him everything.

“Winning doesn’talways mean being first,” said U.S. speed skating legend Bonnie Blair who went from short-track dominance at the 1985 National SportsFestival in Baton Rouge to five golds over three Olympics. “Winning meansyou’re doing better than you’ve ever done before.”

Sometimes, theOlympics mean falling. Literally.Like Lindsey Vonn on Sunday in the women’sdownhill. There has been criticism of her and U.S.

skiing officials foreven trying to ski on atorn ACL, but it was her choice. And danger is always lurking behind the next gate in skiing.

“Towin,” three-timeFrench skiing goldmedalist Jean-Claude Killy said, “you have to risk loss.”

Sometimes the losses are what makethe measure of an athlete. LSUgreat Lolo Jones was the best in the world when she hit thesecond-to-last hurdle in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, fell and finished off the podium.She came back in London in 2012 and the2014 Sochi Winter Olympics as well as abobsledder Jones never got an Olympic

OLYMPICS BROADCASTHIGHLIGHTS

medal slipped around her neck. But she’sone of about 140 athletes to have competed in the Summer and Winter Games, an exceptionally exclusive club. Would she have ever madethe Winter Olympics attempt if she’d wongold?

“There’salways apoint where you get knocked down,” Jones once said. “But Idraw on what I’ve learned on the track: If you workhard, things will work out.” Perhaps in the mostunexpected ways. In one of the greatest sports upsets ever,the U.S. hockey team beat the Soviet Union in the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics. Idon’tlove getting older,but I love that Iwas alive to witness the Miracle on Ice. Here in Baton Rouge, that amazing momenthad apeculiar footnote. The gamewas tapedelayed to be showninprime time. No internet. No social media blasts. Maybe aradio report mostofusmissed. But ex-WBRZ sportscaster Andy Leopold (ABC televised the Olympics then) blurted out on anews break between periods that the U.S. had won Wherever you may be, Andy, please know there are people here whostill hate you fordoing that. But really,it’sOK. The Olympics are back, and we’re all eagerly awaiting the next amazing moment.

Do Ibelieve in miracles? Every time. Every single time.

FOOTE

Continued from page 1C

intrasquad scrimmages

“I think you’re seeing something pretty special in the making, though, in this freshman,” Deggs said of Brown. “Let’s let him get a taste of it. I think you’re going to see him get better and better and better real quick.”

Deggs also is impressed with Brown’s defense and leadership ability

“It’s pretty good,” Deggs responded while trying to hide a sly smile. “It’s a big arm. Now, I’ll say this, I don’t know if there’s anybody in the country at any level that presents the baseball as well as Cheo (Torres). But once that stops, there’s other facets to it, and Cheo can really block, too but you’ve got the offensive side of things.” Like Deggs, some of us are big

OMAHA

Continued from page 1C

In 2022, Dylan Crews hit 22 homers The 2023 championship season saw Tommy White hit 24 bombs White and Jared Jones had more than 20 homers the next year and Jones passed the mark again in 2025. Identifying the next 20-plus homer bat is difficult. LSU’s only returning hitter who blasted more than 10 homers is junior shortstop Steven Milam. Junior right fielder Jake Brown has pull-side power, but he only hit eight balls over the fence a year ago. Returning starters in sophomore center fielder Derek Curiel and senior left fielder Chris Stanfield combined to hit just eight homers. Curiel hit seven of them. Some of the new faces could pick up some slack, but High Point transfer Brayden Simpson is the only one who has eclipsed the 20 home run mark, and that came at a much lower level. Oregon State transfer Trent Caraway hit six home runs in the NCAA Tournament, but his inconsistent play held him to just 12 all of last season. Grand Canyon transfer Zach Yorke is that schoo’s all-time home runs leader in Division I, but his strongest attribute is getting on base, not hitting balls over the fence.

LSU

Continued from page 1C

LSU didn’t play a difficult nonconference schedule. It did beat No. 11 Duke on the road in December, but according to WarrenNolan.com, 275 teams had an overall tougher prelude to league play than coach Kim Mulkey’s Tigers.

Still, LSU has won four of the seven games it’s played against teams ranked in the latest edition of the AP Top 25 Poll, and it will face three more of those opponents before the regular season ends March 1 As of

on nicknames and player comps.

Obviously it’s not a prediction the player will reach reach a certain level but more of an illustration of his playing style. So when jokingly asked whether Roy Hobbs was going to be catching for the Cajuns on Friday, Deggs had a quick response.

“No, he’s not left-handed,” Deggs quipped. “More like Buster Posey.” OK, we’ll leave it at that for now Deggs is just a year away from being burned by having to count on so many highly touted freshmen After some of them departed after a 27-31 season, the Cajuns likely will have to start three freshmen at times this season. In addition to Brown, there’s Blaze Rodriguez of Slidell at shortstop and Noah Lewis of Baton Rouge pushing for time in center field.

“He’s probably ahead of Debo (Twins 2024 first-round pick Kyle DeBarge) defensively at the same age,” Deggs said of Rodriguez.

It’s not impossible that one of these names or even Arrambide eclipses 20 home runs and becomes the feared middle-of-the-order power bat the Tigers have relied on for years. But for the first time under Johnson, LSU heads into a season without an obvious power threat in its lineup.

Health

Health obviously plays a big role in any team’s success throughout a given year But for LSU, a healthy roster will be a little more important this season.

LSU has fewer players on its roster this season. Johnson’s team is still deep with pitching — the Tigers have an extra pitcher in 2026 — but their pool of position players has shrunk from 21 to 18.

This means the Tigers can ill afford to lose players such as Brown, Curiel or Milam. They don’t have the same depth as they did a year ago with Tanner Reaves, Ashton Larson and Josh Pearson coming off of the bench

LSU has been relatively fortunate with injuries over the past two years. Redshirt junior right-hander Gavin Guidry and redshirt sophomore right-hander Deven Sheerin were the only potential contributors who missed extensive time last season. In 2024, LSU didn’t have Chase Shores for the whole year. It also didn’t have redshirt junior right-

Monday, only 11 teams have more Quad 1 wins. The Tigers also could wind up breaking the Division I total points record, though they’d probably have to reach both the SEC Tournament title game and the Final Four to do so. Iowa set that one when it tallied 3,548 points across 39 games in 2023-24 (91 ppg).

LSU will enter its clash with No. 3 South Carolina on Saturday (7:30 p.m., ABC) with 2,415 points. If the Tigers play 14 more games, including the showdown with the Gamecocks, then they’d need to average only 80.9 ppg in those match-

If things work out as planned, the infield will remain intact for most of the season with Rodriguez anchoring shortstop, Drew Markle at third, Rigoberto Hernandez at second and Lee Amedee at first base.

The wiggle room comes in the outfield. Lewis likely will back up junior Maddox Mandino (.250, 8 RBIs, 17 SBs) in center “Maddox is quick as a hiccup,” Deggs said.

Donovan LaSalle transferred from Oklahoma State to provide pop but was hit by a pitch over the weekend and could miss some time. That leaves room for last year’s freshman returnees in Griffin Hebert (.222, 4 RBIs), Kasen Bellard (.188, 1 HR, 3 RBIs) and Mark Collins (.211, 7 RBIs) to emerge.

Behind the starting rotation, Deggs believes the bullpen is an encouraging spot. First, there’s 6-foot-7 true freshman Sawyer Pruitt from Live Oak High School.

“I think he’s emerging really

hander Jaden Noot for most of the season and was without Christian Little in the Chapel Hill Regional. That run of good luck will need to continue for the Tigers in 2026, especially on the position player front. The only player LSU has out to start this year is freshman lefthander Jonah Aase, who is expected to miss the season while recovering from Tommy John surgery

Left-handed pitching

LSU lost a solid group of lefthanders after Kade Anderson and Conner Ware were drafted and Dalton Beck ran out of eligibility The Tigers brought back only two left-handers in sophomore Cooper Williams and redshirt junior DJ Primeaux. Williams is poised to earn a rotation spot and Primeaux’s role in the bullpen has grown, but LSU needed more options. So Johnson went to work over the summer, adding North Dakota State transfer Danny Lachenmayer Oregon transfer Santiago Garcia and junior-college transfer Ethan Plog.

The three new lefties are not the same style of pitcher, which helps Johnson match up against opposing lineups. Lachenmayer relies on a sharp curveball and a highrelease point to fool hitters. Garcia has a more traditional delivery and strong breaking pitches. Plog has a low arm slot and a fastball with

ups to break the record.

LSU’s pursuit of those records illustrates the fact that it’s enjoying its best offensive season since Mulkey’s tenure began in 2021. The numbers look impressive no matter how they are sliced. According to Her Hoop Stats, the Tigers are scoring 108.3 points per 100 possessions in SEC play, which would be their highest rate of the last five years. LSU has scored at that high of a clip even though its top bucket-getter, star junior Mikaylah Williams, is notching only 13.9 ppg in league play Four Tigers are scoring more than 10 ppg, and eight are scoring

sixth-rounder Will Howard, but that’s a lot of faith to put in a 24-year-old for a team that wants to compete now Another factor to consider is that the Pittsburgh front office and coaching staff have ties to the Saints, which may make it easier to hammer out a deal.

New York Jets: Before Carr signed with the Saints in 2023, he closely looked at the Jets — who ended up trading for Rodgers. Three years later, the Jets (again) desperately need to find competent play at the position. Coach Aaron Glenn’s tenure depends on it, as he might be entering his second season already on the hot seat.

Potential compensation

The Saints received a 2023 first-round pick and a 2024 second-round pick when they traded Payton to the Denver Broncos. Don’t hold your breath on such a package for Carr Even though quarterbacks can fetch a premium, New Orleans likely wouldn’t want to be stuck with Carr’s contract in the event he unretires — especially after Tyler Shough’s emergence. And even with a less-thanenticing free agent class, it’s hard to see any team giving up the farm for a player who hasn’t played in a year and is coming off a serious injury

quick as one of the hardest guys to hit on our staff,” Deggs said of Pruitt. “I’d like to start him on Tuesday (at Rice).”

True freshman southpaw Cole Flanagan from Sam Houston High is also vying for midweek starts.

Tyler Junior College transfer Cody Brasch is setting himself up to be the closer perhaps battling with another Tyler JC arm in Garret Carter

“They’re pretty interchangeable right now,” Deggs said. “Carter is very very strong and I think can be durable. If he continues to pound that strike zone, I think he profiles down the road as a starter.”

Tyler Papenbrock, Bryce Wilson, Hayden Pearson and Parker Smith are among other bullpen candidates.

“I think that those type things will figure itself out, but as far as looking at a back end and a rotation, I feel pretty good about it,” Deggs said.

sharp arm-side movement (darting inside to left-handed hitters and away from righties).

LSU will need at least one or two of these new arms to emerge as reliable relievers. Plog, despite posting an ERA over five at Iowa Western Community College, has looked sharp during the preseason. Garcia has had command issues, but he dominated hitters last summer in the Cape Cod League. Lachenmayer owned a 2.37 ERA and pitched well in the NCAA Tournament last year Transfer bats

LSU will rely heavily on a handful of transfers to produce in the lineup. Yorke, Caraway, Simpson and Kansas State transfer Seth Dardar were all brought in to fill holes around the infield and at designated hitter after Michael Braswell, Jared Jones, Ethan Frey and Daniel Dickinson all moved on to professional baseball.

LSU’s latest transfers were accomplished hitters at their previous stops, but questions remain about how each newcomer will fare in the SEC. Dickinson, who transferred in from Utah Valley, had to answer the same question mark, and it worked out.

But Johnson is taking more rolls of the dice this year with an array of transfer bats from non-SEC schools.

more than five ppg. That balanced scoring helped LSU split its home-and-home series with No. 4 Texas. That’s one of the key reasons why it’s entrenched as an NCAA Tournament No. 2 seed in most bracket projections ahead of the last five games of the regular season. The Tigers still can push for their first No. 1 seed since 2006, but they’ll need to first knock off South Carolina on Saturday to preserve what’s left of those hopes. The Gamecocks have beaten LSU 17 straight times. Five of those wins have come since Mulkey moved to Baton Rouge.

There have been examples of players fetching compensation after taking time away But the returns rarely have yielded the kind of premium the Saints received for Payton. With that in mind, here are some templates to get a deal done: 2008, Brett Favre to the New York Jets: After Favre retired and then unretired that same offseason, the Green Bay Packers sent him to New York for a conditional fourth-rounder that eventually became a third-round pick. Beyond the differences in on-field credentials, Favre hadn’t taken a year off like Carr and there was at least one more team (the Tampa Bay Buccaneers) interested in Favre’s services. 2013, Carson Palmer to the Arizona Cardinals: Palmer fetched a first-rounder and more from the Raiders after “retiring” as a member of the Cincinnati Bengals in 2011. But the more comparable deal might be the trade that happened two years later when the Raiders sent the 33-yearold Palmer to the Cardinals for a swap of sixth-round and seventh-round selections, plus a conditional seventh-round pick that was met. Though Palmer wasn’t retired when he went to Arizona, he was near Carr’s age. Carr turns 35 in March. 2017, Marshawn Lynch to the Raiders: After retiring in 2015, the Raiders acquired Lynch and a 2018 sixthround pick from the Seattle Seahawks in exchange for a 2018 fifth-round pick. Lynch wasn’t a quarterback, but the deal is an example of a late-round pick swap that worked for both sides. 2020, Rob Gronkowski to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Gronkowski netted a fourth-round pick when the Patriots sent him and a seventh-round pick to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2020 — a year after Gronkowski had retired. Those were also rare circumstances, as the tight end unretired to reunite with Tom Brady 2022, Matt Ryan to the Indianapolis Colts: Like the Favre deal, this one may be more optimistic. Ryan, unlike Carr, was still active. But the reason this should be mentioned is that Ryan was about to turn 37 at the time, and the Colts were still willing to pay up in an attempt to solve their quarterback problem.

Ryan’s tenure with the Colts didn’t work out, but perhaps another team will be as aggressive. In Indianapolis’ case, the Colts were comfortable parting ways with a third-round pick after getting back an even better haul for Carson Wentz weeks earlier

Email Matthew Paras at matt.paras@theadvocate.com

Harry Styles fans are selling blood to buy tickets

BY KARU F DANIELS

NEW YORK Fans of Harry Styles are pulling out all the stops — and even some blood — in an effort to afford tickets for his upcoming world tour

The Grammy winner’s “Together, Together Tour” is playing just 67 dates in 11 cities, with 30 at Madison Square Garden as part of what’s sure to be another record-breaking run Styles previously made history at MSG with his “Love on Tour” residency in 2022, playing 15 consecutive sold-out nights

Tickets for the latest New York City shows — the only confirmed U.S. dates went on sale Jan. 30 and they’re hard to obtain. According to Rolling Stone, more than 11 million people queued up for 500,000 tickets.

From Aug. 26 to Oct 31, Styles will play the world-famous arena with special guest Jamie xx With a limited number of tickets and exorbitant prices of more than $1,000 a piece, diehard fans are resorting to desperate measures to get cash. Some are even selling their plasma.

Florida-based illustration student Daniella Barone told Rolling Stone that she was trading her blood at a plasma center to get money to pay for the cost of tickets, travel and accommodations to see the former One Direction frontman

TNS/GETTy

during the Brit Awards 2023 at the O2 Arena in London.

“I’ve been listening to One Direction since I was 11, and I’m 24 now,” she said. “I’ve always loved Harry’s music, but I also love the fandom. It’s like a little family That’s always something that has really appealed to me, having that community.”

Another fan, Ava Engle, said she’s been selling her plasma despite being terrified of needles. Hauling in $90 per donation, the 18-year-old San Diego State University student also took on tutoring and a part-time gig during school breaks to try to pony up enough paper for the tickets.

“Being in the chair, I was having second thoughts. Like, ‘What am I doing?’ ” she told Rolling Stone. “I just want to see one of my favorite artists. We shouldn’t have to be doing all of this just to afford tickets for one night.”

Demand is sky-high to see Styles, whose fourth studio album, “Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally,” is set to be released on March 6. The album marks his first since 2022’s Grammy-winning “Harry’s House.”

“Aperture,” the first single to yield from the new set, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 last week. The song also helped Styles make history again as the first male artist to top the Hot Dance/Pop Songs chart which launched in January of last year

Carnival cuisine

The whole family will love these restaurants on Lafayette’s Mardi Gras parade route

BY JOANNA BROWN Staff writer

The key to a great Mardi Gras parade? Knowing where you can get a great meal along the route. Bonus if it’s locally owned, family-friendly and able to accommodate raucous crowds on parade day, while serving up delicious, accessible food and fun memories.

Lafayette has a number of restaurants that fit the bill along the Mardi Gras parade route, which runs from Pontiac Point just north of the Evangeline Thruway, through downtown Lafayette and down Johnston Street, before turning on North College Road to end at Cajun Field. Sunday’s Soda Fountain on Jefferson Street is a special favorite among kids.

The restaurant features a menu of sandwiches, burgers and treats, with an old-fashioned feel and a wide range of milkshakes The best time to pop in with your crew will be during the Children’s Parade, which starts at Lafayette Street and West Vermilion Street on Saturday at 12:30 p.m.

“We do have outside seating to take the pressure off the inside, and we have a to-go window, so

people can order and not have to wait for a table,” said Sunday’s manager Mandy Menard.

Pop’s Poboys in downtown Lafayette stands two blocks from the parade route, and The Ground Pat’i is helpfully situated across from Blackham Coliseum — two major areas for parade watching popular with families. These restaurants have something for everyone, and anticipate big crowds but that’s part of the charm on parade days, where inconveniences are outweighed by community celebration.

Kori Crappell, general manager at Pop’s Poboys said that Krewe de Canailles is their favorite parade to prepare for, since the walking parade party passes right next to the restaurant.

“We get hit the hardest with that one, but we just staff up a little bit and get ready,” she said. “We get lots of kids, families they love to stand out there and pop in to use the bathroom or get water We’re just excited; we love Mardi Gras.”

These restaurants are close by each section of the route, from downtown spots near where the floats turn at Lafayette and Vermilion streets, to the eateries that stretch

The Primo pizza at Bistro Italia in Baton Rouge

Continued from page7C

about returning just for this appetizer Looking for apizza with almost everything on it (can’tstand anchovies), we went for the 16-inch pie called The Primo …and it was. The crust was thin but not overly crunchy like some tend to be, and covered with fresh mushrooms, onions, bell peppers, banana peppers, roasted red pepper,Italian sausage and pepperoni. Every bite was the perfect melding of all the fresh flavors, with the red pepper offering a little kick, which set it apart from the rest. The sauce was robust but not sweet All in all, primo. —Judy Bergeron, assistant features editor Kolaches andcoffee

n Town’s Donuts &Breakfast, 16565 George O’Neal Road, Baton Rouge

Iwas reporting on a closed restaurant one morning and felt my stomach grumble. Ilook to my left and see alittle orange building,bearing atitle that was exactly what Isought. Town’sDonuts &Breakfast is mainly alocal chain, with seven locations in the Baton Rouge area, one in Covington and one north of Independence.

This is agreat,quick breakfast spot if you want to keep the bill low.The prices here are affordable, ahearty kolache running afew bucks each. Iordered the jalapeño kolache ($3.28), which was spicy, hot and delicious.

Ialso ordered the smoked

An iced saltedcaramelwafflelatte from Scooter’sCoffee

brisket kolache ($4 21) because it sounded intriguing, and it was solid for theprice. Iwashed it down with acup ofcoffee($2.49).

—MaddieScott, features writer Coffee, sweet treat n Scooter’s Coffee, 2492 W. Congress St., Lafayette

As areporter,Ilive on coffee andnews tips. When I’mdriving around town between interviews, Ilove making astop at Scooter’s Coffee. Every drink I’ve ordered

at Scooter’shas been delicious, and Ilove the limitedtime menuitems.This time, Iordered theiced salted caramel waffle latte, amix of brown butter and salted caramel flavors topped with whipped cream and alittle waffle piece. The treats at Scooter’salways hit thespot.Iordered ared velvet cake ball, which was moist and flavorful and theperfect size to not ruin my appetitefor whatever meal comes next. Both cost me about $10.

—Ashley White, education reporter

AVenezuelan patacon, or asandwich madewithsmashed plantains, is servedwith shredded beef andtopped withvegetables and sauce by Patacon Latin Cuisine.

RESTAURANTS

Continued from page7C

down Johnston Street as the parades pass by the university and neighborhoods. Also rolling Saturday is the KreweofBonaparte at 6:30 p.m. Checkout these options for enjoying some of Lafayette’sbest-known restaurants, along with their specialties —wherever your spot happens to be. n Agave Mexican Grill, 200 E. Vermilion St. —TexMex with Cajun twists

n Borden’sIce Cream Shoppe, 1103 Jefferson St. Ice cream, milkshakes, chili dogs and nachos.Note,Borden’sisopenonSaturday parade days from 11 a.m. to 4p.m. only.

n Deano’sPizza, 305 BertrandDrive —Pizza and wings

n GroundPat’i, 2303 Johnston St. —Burgers, fries and onion rings

n Njoy Curry Masala, 1020 Jefferson St. —Indian cuisine

n Patacon Latin Cuisine, 308 Bertrand Drive —Venezuelan patacones, arepas and empanadas

At 90,pastorconsiders dog

Dear Heloise: Maybe you can help me. Iinfer from reading your columnthat you have an affinity for pets. This leads me to askyou what may be an unanswerable question.I’m awidowed nonagenarian who yearns for acuddly comfort. Although she’sbeen deceased for nearly seven years, I still feel so attached tomy wife of 63 years that Idon’t want anew romance. ButI love dogs. I’d love to have aminiature Goldendoodle to snuggle up next to me. I would enjoy the companionship and having aloving, nurturing, living being beside me.

n Pop’sPoboys, 740 Jefferson St.—Po-boys, daiquiris, mac andcheese

n Shane’s Loaded Mac Bar, 1043 Johnston St. —Build your own mac and cheese

n Spoonbill Watering Hole, 900 Jefferson St. —Seafood, burgers,tiki cocktails n Sunday’sSodaFountain,431 Jefferson St. —Ice cream, milkshakes, burgers

n TheFlats,427 Jefferson St.—Burgers, sandwiches, fries, salads.

Email Joanna Brown at joanna.brown@ theadvocate.com.

ditionally prohibitive for walking outdoors. Ilive in asenior living apartment, so Idon’thave a fenced-in yard. I’manold, retired pastor who doesn’tfeel like he can afford to hire someone to walk the dog. So, is there asolution forme? Or should Igive up the dream?Thank you. You bless alot of lives. —J.Keith C., via email J., it seemsthat at this stage of life, adog is not really the answer.They have vet bills, need to be walked, and need to have acaretaker if you are not there to take care of them.They also need to be bathed and groomed.

night. Another reader said she uses along pillow that is almost as long as she is so that she can wrap herself around the pillow Readers, do any of you know of asolution that works foryou or someone else you know?Write to Heloise@Heloise.com

Heloise

Donate bags

The problem is that in my old age, Ihave a heart issue that makes it impossible for me to take it for walks. Our winter and stormy times are ad-

By The Associated Press

Today is Wednesday, Feb.11, the 42nd day of 2026. There are 323 days left in the year

Todayinhistory: On Feb.11, 1990, South African anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela was freed after 27 years in prison. (Mandela would be elected president of South Africa four years later.)

Also on this date:

In 1937, asix-week-old sit-down strike against General Motors ended, with the company agreeing to recognize and negotiate with the United Auto Workers union.

In 1945, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Josef Stalin signed the Yalta Agreement, in which Stalin agreed todeclare war againstImperial Japan

However,one of my readers told me that she sleeps with afairly largesized teddy bear so that she can cuddle with it at

TODAYINHISTORY

following Nazi Germany’s capitulation.

In 1975, Margaret Thatcher was elected leader of Britain’sopposition Conservative Party,aprelude to her eventual rise to primeminister in 1979.

In 1990, in one of the biggest upsets in boxing history,underdog Buster Douglas knocked out the previously undefeated heavyweight champion Mike Tyson at Japan’sTokyo Dome

In 2012, on the eve of the Grammy Awards, superstar singer Whitney Houston wasfound dead after she drowned in ahotel room bathtub in Beverly Hills, California; she was 48. The official coroner’s report listed heart disease and cocaine as contributing factors in her death.

In 2013, during aroutine morning meeting of Vatican cardinals, Pope

Dear Heloise: Please ask your readers to save their plastic bags forthe local food bank. We constantly need bags of all kinds paper,plastic, canvas anything that can hold food forour clients to carry home. Additionally,egg cartons are very helpful as we buy eggs in bulk, then divide them into smaller portions in cartons. —JenniferW., via email

Sendahinttoheloise@ heloise.com.

Benedict XVIannounced he would resign as pope effective Feb. 28; it was the first papal resignation in nearly 600 years. In 2020, the World Health Organization gave the official nameofCOVID-19 to the disease caused by the coronavirus that had emerged in China and was unleashing aworldwide pandemic.

Today’sbirthdays: Actor Tina Louise is 92. Former Florida Gov.Jeb Bush is 73. Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin is 64. Musician Sheryl Crow is 64.

TheAmerican RedCross ofLouisiana is hereall year.

Local support. Local impact. TheAmerican RedCross in Louisiana serves4.65millionresidentsacrossall64parishesandextendshopeto communitiesacrossthenationandaroundtheworld.Whenyousupportyour localRedCross,youmakeadirectimpactinyourcommunity Poweredbygenerosity. TheRedCrossisnotagovernmentagency.Wearea501(c)(3) nonprofitthatreliesonthepowerofvolunteersandthegenerosity ofdonorstocarryoutourhumanitarianmission. RedCrosssupportersprovideabeaconofhope.Fromhelping duringdisasters,toprovidinglifesavingtrainingandsupporting militarycommunities,theRedCrossistherewhenhelpcan’twait.

AQuARIus (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) Your energy requires direction. Once you grasp what's most important to you, nothing will stop you from reaching your objective. Don't stop when the sky's the limit.

PIscEs (Feb. 20-March 20) Look, assess and follow through, and the returns will far exceed the stress. The personal growth you gain will take you far beyond your expectations.

ARIEs (March 21-April 19) Put your energy where it will do some good and be uplifting for you and the people you help. Volunteering your time or services will change how you feel about and manage your finances.

tAuRus (April 20-May 20) Discipline will help eliminate regret and failure. Pay attention to how you present yourself to others mentally, physically and emotionally. It's essential that you are true to yourself and to those you care about.

GEMInI (May 21-June 20) Proceed with caution. Your words and actions will have an impact on those on the receiving end. Be kind, not cutting, and you'll gain respect and the support you need to reach your objective.

cAncER (June 21-July 22) Pay attention to your needs. Learn from past mistakes; avoid being neglectful of symptoms you shouldn't ignore. Self-improvement will boost your confidence and reputation.

LEo (July 23-Aug. 22) Put more energy into relationships that complement

your attributes and encourage you to do your best. Refuse to let the changes going on around you upset your plans or discourage you from sharing your beliefs.

VIRGo (Aug. 23-sept. 22) Unusual people, places and pastimes will attract your attention. Embrace what and who comes your way with an open heart, eyes and ears. What you discover will broaden your awareness and purpose.

LIBRA (sept. 23-oct. 23) Let your imagination lead the way. It's up to you to take the initiative and turn your dream into a reality. Seize the moment, act on instinct and trust your gut.

scoRPIo (oct. 24-nov. 22) You will experience big setbacks if you let anger get in the way of your talent, charm and ability to put your magic to work for you. Stop talking and start moving forward.

sAGIttARIus (nov. 23-Dec. 21) Set a plan and budget in place and move forward with vigor. Time is precious, and if you channel it correctly, what you end up with will exceed your expectations.

cAPRIcoRn (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) Be direct, ask questions and bypass anyone who cannot give you a straight answer. Put your plan in place and trust your instincts, knowledge and experience to carry you forward.

The horoscope, an entertainment feature, is not based on scientific fact. © 2026 by NEA, Inc., dist. By Andrews McMeel Syndication

Sudoku

InstructIons: Sudoku is anumber-placing puzzle based on a9x9 grid with several given numbers. Theobject is to place the numbers 1to9 in the empty squares so that each row, each column and each 3x3 box contains the same number only once. Thedifficulty level of theSudoku increases from Monday to Sunday.

Yesterday’s Puzzle Answer

Bridge

By PHILLIP ALDER

When an average golfer gets abirdie (one under par),itisanticipated that he willmakeamessofthenexthole.Butnot apro. However, what do you think is the worst score by apro immediately after making aholeinone?

In golf, you try to place your ball well foryour next shot.This also applies in bridge. Are your cards meshing well or badly with partner’s hand?

Look only at the North hand. South opens one heart, North raises to two hearts, and South rebids twospades. What shouldNorth do now?

Beforeyouanswerthatquestion,what does South’s two-spade rebid show?

Itindicatesahandtoostrongtopassout two hearts, but tooweak to jump to four hearts. He is showing four spades and ahand with six losers(here, one spade, oneheart,threediamondsandoneclub).

Southisasking North to look in particular at hisholdings in the majors.

North has auseful spade queen, four trumps (a nine-card fit is much better than an eight-carder) and an ace. Yes, he has only seven high-card points and 4-3-3-3 distribution, but since his hand has those threepluses, he should jump to four hearts.

Agreed, on abad day, declarer will lose three diamonds and one heart, but the odds make thisgame worth bidding, and it succeeds here.

AfewyearsagoinAustralia,ataEuropean tour event (yes,inAustralia), one golferhadaholeinone.Onthenexthole, apar four withnowater, he had an 11. ©2026 by NEA,Inc., dist. By Andrews McMeel Syndication

Each Wuzzle is awordriddlewhich creates adisguised word, phrase, name, place, saying, etc. For example: NOON GOOD =GOOD AFTERNOON

Previous answers:

word game

InstRuctIons: 1. Words must be of fourormore letters. 2. Words that acquire fourletters by the addition of “s,”such as “bats” or “dies,” are not allowed.3 Additional words made by adding a“d” or an “s” may not be used. 4. Proper nouns, slang words, or vulgar or sexually explicit wordsare not allowed toDAy’s WoRD IGnoMInIous: ig-nuh-MIN-ee-us: Deserving of shame; despicable.

Average mark22words Timelimit 45 minutes Can you find 31 or morewords in IGNOMINIOUS?

yEstERDAy’s WoRD —BoutIQuEs

BRIEFS

FROM WIRE REPORTS

Stocks drift to a mixed finish as yields fall

NEW YORK Stocks drifted on Wall Street Tuesday following a mixed set of profit reports from big U.S. companies, as Hasbro jumped but Coca-Cola slipped. Hopes also built that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates later this year to boost the economy following a discouraging report on the strength of U.S. shoppers.

The S&P 500 fell 0.3% after briefly rising above its all-time high, which was set a couple weeks ago The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 52 points or 0.1%, to its own record, while the Nasdaq composite fell 0.6%.

The action was stronger in the bond market, where Treasury yields fell after a report showed U.S. retailers made less money at the end of last year than economists expected. Shoppers spent roughly the same amount in December as they did in November, less than the modest growth that economists expected.

That could signal a loss of momentum for spending by U.S. households, which is the main engine of the economy It also came ahead of two more anticipated reports coming later in the week. On Wednesday, the U.S. government will give the latest monthly update on the unemployment rate, while a Friday report will show how bad inflation is for U.S. consumers.

Altogether the data should help the Federal Reserve decide what to do with interest rates

Paramount sweetens offer for Warner Bros.

Paramount Skydance has sweetened its bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, adding a $2.8 billion “break fee” for Netflix and a payment to shareholders set to increase for every quarter after Jan. 1, 2027, that the transaction does not close.

However, it’s not clear the latest move will do much to sway Warner Bros. Discovery’s board which has endorsed a rival bid from Netflix.

The David Ellison-led company sent notice Tuesday of its revised offer to the Warner Bros Discovery board, adding that it was open to further negotiation.

“While we have tried to be as constructive as possible in formulating these solutions, several of these items would benefit from collaborative discussion to finalize,” the letter states.

“If granted a short window of engagement, we will work with you to refine these solutions to ensure they address any and all of your concerns.”

Paramount’s all-cash offer still stands at $30 a share In addition to the termination payment and so-called “ticking fee” for shareholders of 25 cents per share which the company said would total about $650 million in cash value each quarter

Paramount also said it would “eliminate” Warner’s $1.5 billion financing cost associated with its debt exchange offer

Coca-Cola demand rises in fourth quarter

Coca-Cola saw stronger demand globally in the fourth quarter but its shares slipped on investors’ concerns about its tepid outlook.

Global unit case volumes grew 1% for the October-December period, led by the U.S., Japan and Brazil, the Atlanta beverage giant said Tuesday Unit case volumes also rose by 1% in North America, reversing several quarters of flat or declining sales.

But Coke’s fourth quarter net revenue was lower than expected, and the company said it expects its organic revenue to rise 4% to 5% in 2026. The company’s organic revenue grew 5% last year, and analysts were expecting close to that this year

Coca-Cola said it’s working to turn around weak demand in China, India and some markets in Europe. Government efforts to curb sugary drink consumption could also weigh on Coke’s sales this year

THEADVOCATE.COM/news/business

Louisiana Blue CEO to retire

Camerlinck says role was ‘a privilege’

BY TIMOTHY BOONE Staff writer

Bryan Camerlinck, who took over as president and CEO of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana two years ago after the nonprofit company shelved plans for Elevance Health to buy the business, announced Tuesday he will retire.

Camerlinck has been with Blue Cross for 33 years, with the last decade in executive leadership roles. He will remain CEO through the end of the year to facilitate the leadership transition.

“It has been a privilege to lead

Louisiana Blue and serve the people of our state,” Camerlinck said in a statement. “I am incredibly proud of the progress our team has made strengthening our commitment to Louisiana, improving the experience for our customers and navigating significant industry challenges.”

hospitals, policyholders and elected officials.

He took over leadership of the company in May 2024, after former CEO Dr Steve Udvarhelyi retired. Udvarhelyi led a controversial and unsuccessful attempt to sell the Baton Rouge-based company to one of the nation’s largest insurers, Elevance Health. He stepped down three months after the sales plan was shelved in the face of opposition from doctors,

Camerlinck provided stability and a renewed focus on keeping Blue Cross local and independent in the aftermath of the sales attempt. He rebranded the company as Louisiana Blue.

“Bryan stepped into the CEO role with deep knowledge of the organization and a steady hand during a period of enormous change in health care,”

Judy Miller, chair of the Louisiana Blue Board of Directors, said in a statement. Camerlinck joined Blue Cross in 2016 as chief financial officer and was promoted to the role of executive vice president and chief oper-

ating officer in 2021, where he had financial and operational responsibility for all lines of business at Blue Cross. He also had strategic oversight of the company’s business operations, information technology, data and analytics, sales, marketing and communications, and customer experience divisions.

Prior to joining Blue Cross, Camerlinck spent more than 20 years as an executive at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City He began his career as an auditor with Ernst and Young, is a certified public accountant and holds a degree in accounting and pre-law from Kansas State University Plans are for the board of directors to launch a formal search for the next CEO.

Opposition grows in Congo over U.S. rare earth minerals deal

Activists say agreement would create more conflict

BY SALEH MWANAMILONGO Associated Press

Opposition to a deal that would allow U.S. companies access to critical minerals in Congo is growing after Congo’s President Felix Tshisekedi returned from the U.S. minerals summit last week — with praises from U.S. President Donald Trump and U.S lawmakers. Tshisekedi has offered U.S. companies access to eastern Congo’s rich minerals — mostly untapped and estimated to be worth $24 trillion — as a bargaining chip for U.S. support to help fight off rebels and build critical infrastructure in the region where Rwandabacked rebels seized major cities last year

It comes as the Trump administration seeks to create a minerals trading bloc with its allies, in part to defend against China’s stranglehold on critical elements needed for everything from fighter jets to smartphones. China accounts for nearly 70% of the world’s rare earth mining and controls roughly 90% of global rare earths processing. It is also the most active player in Congo’s minerals sector

On the sidelines of the Feb. 4 Critical Minerals Ministerial in Washington, D.C., Tshisekedi led a Congolese delegation on strategic meetings with senior Trump administration officials and members of the Congress, mostly building on the strategic partnership agreement that both countries signed in December

“We are open for business and we are serious about doing business the right way,” Tshisekedi told members of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce during a meeting last week.

Discussions with Congolese officials focused on reviewing a list of strategic assets submitted by Congo which will help determine investment opportunities for American companies, the U.S. State Department said last week.

The strategic partnership has been framed as securing supply chains for strategic minerals like cobalt, copper, lithium and coltan for the U.S. while Congo in return receives U.S. support for development of key infrastructure.

In Congo, however, analysts and residents say there are still no signs that U.S. involvement in the country’s minerals sector will help meet its most crucial need: permanent peace and stability particularly in the east where Rwanda-backed M23 rebels have seized territories a year ago.

The rebels also control vast territories rich in minerals, including the Rubaya coltan mine which produces around 15% of the world’s

coltan and where at least 200 miners died recently after a part of it collapsed. American companies, meanwhile, have long avoided Congo due in part to high levels of insecurity and corruption, a void long filled by Chinese companies.

“The battle between China and the United States for access to and control of strategic minerals will intensify concretely on Congolese soil,” said Josaphat Musamba doctoral researcher studying conflict and development at Belgium’s Ghent University

In the capital of Kinshasa, opposition is growing against the mineral partnerships both from public figures and the civil society leaders, some of whom have accused the Congolese government of underselling the country’s vast mineral wealth.

A group of lawyers and human rights activists in Congo has filed a lawsuit arguing that

the mineral partnership threatens Congo’s sovereignty

“We are assuming our responsibility as Congolese citizens to protect the sovereignty of our country and preserve our heritage for future generations,” said Jean-Marie Kalonji, one of the lawyers.

Within the opposition, there is also the fear that the deal will mainly benefit Tshisekedi. Moïse Katumbi, the main opposition leader, has raised concerns about how it could be implemented given the security situation in the mineral-rich east and has called for a national dialogue as a better approach to investors.

Archbishop Fulgence Muteba, who is president of the National Episcopal Conference of Congo, likened the strategic partnership to “selling off the minerals of an entire nation to save a regime or a political system.”

“This clearly amounts to sacrificing the development of the population and confiscating the happiness of future generations,” the Catholic bishop said in December

In the rebel-controlled territories, residents say they don’t see any major commitment by the U.S. to restoring peace and stability

“We think this agreement will generate more conflict instead of actually providing solutions because the actors are not sincere,” said Christopher Muyisa, a youth activist.

For Tshisekedi and his government, “the immediate gain is primarily political: strategic recognition from Washington,” said Yvon Muya, a research associate at Canada’s University of Ottawa.

New Target CEO reshapes leadership team in first big move

‘It’s the start of a new chapter,’ he says

BY ANNE D’INNOCENZIO AP retail writer

NEW YORK Target CEO Michael Fiddelke is reshuffling his leadership team and making other changes shortly after stepping into the top job at the retailer that has struggled operationally Rick Gomez, the 13-year Target veteran who oversees the chain’s vast inventory of merchandise, will leave the company And Jill Sando, the chief merchandising officer overseeing a handful of categories like apparel and home and

who has been with the company since 1997, will retire. Lisa Roath, who oversaw food, essentials and cosmetics, will take Fiddelke’s previous job as chief operating officer, the company said Tuesday Cara Sylvester, who had been chief guest experience officer, will become the company’s chief merchandising officer The changes will allow Target to move with greater speed, Fiddelke said. “It’s the start of a new chapter for Target, and we’re moving

quickly to take action against our priorities that will drive growth within our business,” Fiddelke said in a release. Gomez and Sando will remain with the company for a short time to help with the transition, but the changes become effective Sunday. Also on Tuesday, the company reiterated its profit guidance. It is also increasing investment in store staffing at stores while eliminating about 500 jobs at distribution centers and regional offices, according to a memo sent to employees that Target shared with The Associated Press. The cuts make up just a tiny fraction of Target’s overall employee count of more than 400,000. It is the first substantial change

under Fiddelke, a 20-year company veteran who took over for Brian Cornell this month. The company’s decision to choose an insider surprised many industry analysts who believe the company needs new ideas as it tries to revive sales.

Target has struggled to find its footing as many Americans have cut back on spending. Customers have also complained of disheveled stores that are missing the budget-priced niche that long ago earned the retailer the nickname “Tarzhay.”

The company has also been buffeted by consumer boycotts and backlash after it scaled back its corporate diversity equity and inclusion initiatives.

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