The Acadiana Advocate 05-06-2026

ComeauxHighlawsuit escalates

School Board seeksappeals courtreview

BY CLAIRE TAYLOR Staff writer

The Lafayette Parish School

Board is asking an appealscourt to intervene in alawsuit filed against it over avote to close Comeaux High School next school year

The board’slegalteam on Tuesday morning filed anotice advis-

ing the 15thJudicial District Court that it plans to ask the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeal to overturn adecision by Judge Valerie Gotch-Garrett in the case.

Attorney Robert Hammons said Gotch-Garrettrejected the school system’s argumentthat thelawsuit is moot because the SchoolBoard voted on April 15 to rescind its

March 12 votetoclose the school.

The lawsuit alleges the board did notfollow its own rules and state law during theMarch 12 meeting.

Board President HannahMason testified last week that theboard thought it was doing theright thing by reversing its decisiontoclose theschool.

Gotch-Garrett said the board’s

legal team, before the April15 vote, was well aware of herinjunction ordering theboard to takeno action untilthe hearing on the lawsuit that began last week.

If the appeals court agrees the lawsuit is moot, Hammons said, thelawsuit is essentially over An announcement about the request to the appealscourt was madeduring ahearing on the case Tuesdaymorning after the board on Monday rejected aproposed settlement.

EL EC TI ON 20 26

Letlow,Fleming have sharpwords

Cassidyskips eventbecause host disparages him

BY TYLER BRIDGES Staff writer

One thing became clear Tuesday,partway into the only debate in the Republican Senateprimary: U.S.Rep.JuliaLetlow and state Treasurer JohnFleming both want to knock each other out of the race during the first round of votingon May 16.

Letlow and Flemingclashed repeatedly during the 90-minute debate, with each claiming to be the most conservative candidate in the election.

The two Republicansbarely mentioned the manthey want to unseat —U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy —and hadtobeprodded to

criticize himbyconservative talk radio show host Moon Griffon, who organized andmoderated thedebateathis stationon KPEL-96.5 in Lafayette.

The board metinexecutive session for nearly 21/2 hours Monday evening to discuss asettlement proposed by the plaintiffs in a lawsuit thatallegesthe boardviolatedits ownrules andthe state open meetings lawatthe March 12 meeting.

Followingthe executive session Monday,board attorney Hammonssaid the plaintiffs presented the board with “certain termsand

Race to redraw mapposes problems La.Republicans

in uncharted legalwaters

BY ALYSE PFEIL Staff writer

As LouisianaRepublicans scramble to redrawthe state’s congressional map by month’send, they are grappling with whether to draw amap with one majorityBlack,Democraticdistrict— or one with none at all.

ä Supreme Court fast-tracks Louisiana’s congressional map redraw.

At horn y question complicates that decision: Underthe SupremeCourt’s newinterpretation of the Voting Rights Act, in which it’snearly always unconstitutional to use race to draw district lines, is creating a majority-Black district still legal?

Cassidyskipped the event because Griffon regularlylambastes him as “Psycho Bill.” Fleming accused Letlow of distorting hisopposition to illegal immigration and carbon capturesequestration and downplaying his ties to President Donald Trump

“There yougoagain, Julia,” Fleming said several times, reprising aline that

Ronald Reagan madefamous in a1980 nationwide, televised debate with thenPresident Jimmy Carter Letlow saidFleming distorted heropposition to vaccine mandates andtodiversity,equityand inclusion policiesand didn’t acknowledge thatshe self-reported her failure to report stock trades on atimely basis as amember of Congress.

“That’s another desperate claimyou make,” she said at one point to Fleming.

Letlow also said Fleming hit herwith a “lowblow” by noting that her fiance, Kevin Ainsworth, promotescarbon capture sequestration companies as alawyer/lob-

10 hospitalized aftergas leak in Duson

Incident triggeredby valvemalfunction

BY KRISTIN ASKELSON Staff writeri

Tenpeople were taken to hospitals after achemical leakTuesday morning at abusiness on Lexington DriveinLafayetteParish, according to Louisiana State Police. Troopers with theagency’s Emergency Services Unit responded shortly after 7a.m. to a hazardous materialsincident. Investigators said avalve malfunction involving boron trifluoride caused the leak at FIBA Technologies.

“The Legislature should pass a map that is defensible,” Gov.Jeff Landry said Tuesday.“Defensible means that once we go to court, that we will winand we don’thave to go into this continuouslegal viciouslegal cyclethatwe’ve been in.”

Any mapthe Legislature passes will need Landry’sblessing to take effect.

Louisiana has six congressional districts. Currently,four are held by White Republicans and two are held by Black Democrats from Baton Rouge andNew Orleans. The GOP-controlled Legislature is planning to eliminate either one or

ä See MAP, page 4A

ä See LEAK, page 4A

DusonPoliceChief KipJudice said it took about an hour to close the valve and stop the leak,which wassuccessfully contained by around8 a.m. During the response, multiple locationswereevacuated, including FIBA Technologies, Race Connections and twoadditional businesses in theimmediate area. Hazardous materials crews later contained the leak, and all evacuation and shelter-in-place orders were lifted. Officials said there

Man sentenced to death for killing 7-year-old girl

DALLAS A former FedEx driver was sentenced to death on Tuesday after he pleaded guilty to killing a 7-year-old girl he took from her Texas home while delivering a Christmas gift.

Jurors in a Fort Worth courtroom decided on Tanner Horner’s punishment after hearing about a month of testimony and evidence that included audio of Athena Strand’s last moments from inside his delivery van Horner, 34, pleaded guilty to capital murder last month in the 2022 killing just as his trial began. Athena’s body was found two days after she was reported missing from her home in the rural town of Paradise, near Fort Worth.

Horner didn’t visibly react when the judge read the sentence, according to a livestream of the court proceedings.

Jurors found there was a probability Horner would commit criminal violence and be a continuing threat to society They said there was nothing in the commission of the crime or in Horner’s background to warrant life without parole instead of death.

Police: 2 killed and 3 injured in shootings

CARROLLTON, Texas A man shot five people in Texas on Tuesday killing two of them, after meeting at a shopping center north of Dallas, police said. It was not a random act of violence and the attacker knew the victims, Carrollton Police Chief Roberto Arredondo said

“It was a known business relationship. We are still working through trying to identify his causes,” Arredondo said After a short chase on foot, the 69-year-old suspect, Seung Han Ho, was arrested about 4 miles away at a grocery store, police said. It was not immediately known if he had a lawyer who could speak on his behalf.

Police were at a nearby apartment complex where Ho was listed as having recently lived. Neighbors said they didn’t recognize the name.

Three people were injured in the shooting but are in stable condition, Arredondo said. Shortly after the shooting, officers with their guns drawn walked past doors at K Towne Plaza in an area of Carrollton known as Koreatown. Agents from the FBI were among law enforcement collecting evidence in the parking lot.

Carrollton — population 130,000 is 20 miles north of Dallas. More than 4,000 residents are of Korean descent, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Explosion at Colombia mine kills 9, injures 6

BOGOTA, Colombia An explosion in a coal mine in central Colombia killed nine miners and injured six others who were recovering in a hospital Tuesday, officials said. There were 15 miners inside the Carbonera Los Pinos mine in Sutatausa, about 80 kilometers north of Bogota, when the explosion occurred Monday, Cundinamarca provincial Gov Jorge Emilio Rey said on X.

Three of the miners escaped on their own, and the remaining three survivors were rescued. Colombia’s National Agency for Mining said in a statement that officials inspected the mine in early April and had recommended sealing off areas no longer being used for coal extraction, because of a potentially dangerous “accumulation of gases including methane.” The agency didn’t say whether the recommendation was implemented.

The agency expressed its solidarity with families of the victims and said it “regrets this accident in which, thanks to the opportune action of rescue workers, six miners were saved.” Mining accidents are common in central Colombia, where dozens of small operators run coal and emerald mines. In 2023, 11 miners were killed by an explosion at another coal mine in Sutatausa. In 2020, 11 miners died during a mining accident in Cucunuba, another municipality in Cundinamarca province.

GOP pushing bill for ballroom

Legislation

adds $1B for White House security upgrades

BY MARY CLARE JALONICK Associated Press

WASHINGTON Senate Republicans have added $1 billion in White House security upgrades to legislation that would fund immigration enforcement agencies, a proposed boost for President Donald Trump’s ballroom project after a man was charged with trying to assassinate him at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner last week.

The GOP bill released late Monday would designate the money for the U.S. Secret Service for “security adjustments and upgrades” related to the ballroom project, which Trump and Republicans have been pushing since Cole Tomas Allen allegedly stormed the April 25 media dinner at the Washington Hilton with guns and knives. The legislation says the money would support enhance-

ments to the ballroom project, “including above-ground and belowground security features,” but also specifies that the money may not be used for non-security elements.

White House spokesperson Davis Ingle praised Republicans for including the money for the “long overdue” project, saying it would “provide the United States Secret Service with the resources they need to fully and completely harden the White House complex, in addition to the many other critical missions for the USSS.”

The money is part of a larger bill to pay for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol, as Democrats have been blocking funds for both agencies since mid-February. Congress passed bipartisan legislation to fund the rest of the Homeland Security Department on April 30 after a recordlong shutdown, but Republicans are using a partisan budget maneuver

to push through the ICE and Border Patrol dollars on their own. The House has not released its bill yet, but the Senate is expected to start voting on its version of the legislation next week.

It is unclear exactly how the $1 billion would be used and the amount far exceeds the proposed $400 million for construction of the ballroom. The White House has said in court documents that the East Wing project would be “heavily fortified,” including bomb shelters, military installations and a medical facility underneath the ballroom. Trump has said it should include bulletproof glass and be able to repel drone attacks. The National Trust for Historic Preservation has sued to block construction of the project, but a federal appeals court said last month that it can continue in the meantime.

The White House has said that

A gold-fueled mining rush spikes deforestation

Mercury contamination a growing concern in Brazil

BY GABRIELA SÁ PESSOA Associated Press

SAO PAULO The surge in gold prices in recent years has fueled a renewed mining rush in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest, accelerating deforestation in protected areas and driving mercury contamination to hazardous levels, officials and experts say

A study released Tuesday by the nongovernmental organization Amazon Conservation, in partnership with Brazilian nonprofit Instituto Socioambiental, found illegal mining sites drove clear-cutting inside three conservation areas in the Xingu region, one of the world’s largest expanses of protected forest, spanning the states of Para and Mato Grosso. The analysis combined satellite imagery with ground research.

The Terra do Meio Ecological Station recorded its first cases of illegal mining in September 2024. By the end of 2025, mining-related deforestation there had spread to 74 acres. At the Altamira National Forest, illegal mining accumulated 2,056 acres of deforestation between 2016 and September 2025. A new mining front that opened in 2024 expanded to 89 acres by October 2025, accounting for nearly half the mining-related deforestation recorded in the unit during that year

Satellite monitoring also detected a clandestine airstrip used by illegal miners at the Nascentes da Serra do Cachimbo Biological Reserve last year. Illegal mining in the reserve grew from 5 acres to at least 66 acres in 2025.

In 2023, Amazon Conservation teamed up with Earth Genome and the Pulitzer Center to develop the Amazon Mining Watch, a platform that uses satellite imagery to track mining across the Amazon since 2018 About 1,225,640 acres of rainforest have been cleared for mining since then, including approximately 551,045 acres in the Brazilian Amazon. Amazon Conservation estimates that 80% of mining-related deforestation in Brazil carries a high risk of taking place illegally

Mining remains a relatively small driver of deforestation in Brazil, where forest loss is largely linked to agribusiness expansion. In 2025, for example, some 1,432 acres of the Brazilian Amazon were cleared, according to official data. About 42,000 acres were related to mining, according to the Mining Watch. “What makes mining particularly prob-

lematic is that it targets protected areas and Indigenous territories,” said Matt Finer, director of Amazon Conservation’s MonitoringoftheAndesAmazonprogram.

Protecting Indigenous territories is widely seen as an effective way to curb deforestation in the Amazon, the world’s largest rainforest and a key regulator of global climate. Researchers warn that continued forest loss could accelerate global warming.

In 2023, Brazilian authorities launched a major crackdown on illegal gold mining in the Yanomami Indigenous territory in Roraima state, along the border with Venezuela, after a surge led to a humanitarian and health crisis. Annual growth in newly mined areas there fell sharply after that year, according to Amazon Conservation data. Although mining has not been fully eliminated, nearly all deforestation inside the Yanomami territory — about 13,590 acres had taken place by 2023.

Still, localized enforcement has not curbed illegal mining across the Amazon. When authorities destroy dredges and equipment in one region, miners often relocate or resume operations once officials leave. Federal prosecutor André Luiz Porreca, who investigates illegal mining in the western Brazilian Amazon, described enforcement as a “cat-and-mouse game.

“Last year, I took part in an operation that destroyed more than 500 dredges on an Indigenous land,” Porreca said. “The following week, Indigenous people showed me photos proving the miners had already returned.”

While enforcement eased pressure in Yanomami territory, illegal mining has intensified elsewhere, particularly across Indigenous lands in the Xingu River basin The most critical situation is on the Kayapo Indigenous land, where roughly 19,620 acres of rainforest have been cleared by illegal mining, the largest such area in the Brazilian Amazon.

Record-breaking gold prices, driven largely by investor demand for safe assets amid rising global risks, have provided a strong incentive for illegal mining.

“It’s basic market logic. With more buyers, there are more people exploiting gold,” Porreca said. He said Brazil’s mineral export control system remains weak, allowing laundering schemes that give illicit gold the appearance of legality.

Environmental damage extends beyond deforestation Illegal mining operations dump mercury into rivers, contaminating waterways and accumulating in fish consumed by riverine and Indigenous communities.

private money would pay for the construction but public money would be used for security measures. Some Republicans have suggested that public money pay for all of it, arguing the security breach at the dinner shows the president needs a secure place to host events.

“It would be insane” to hold the dinner at a hotel again, said Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who introduced a bill to pay for the ballroom’s construction with Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala. Democrats have said they will oppose any efforts to pay for the ballroom.

“While Americans are struggling to make ends meet as a result of President Trump’s failed policies, Republicans are focused on providing tens of billions of dollars for the President’s vanity ballroom project and cruel mass deportation campaign,” said Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which oversees the U.S. Secret Service.

Proposed U.N. resolution threatens Iran with sanctions

Efforts aim to establish freedom of navigation

BY EDITH M. LEDERER Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS A proposed U.N. resolution threatens Iran with sanctions or other measures if it doesn’t halt attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz, stop imposing “illegal tolls,” and disclose the placement of all mines to allow freedom of navigation. The draft Security Council resolution, co-sponsored by the United States and Gulf nations and obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press, also demands that Iran “immediately participate in and enable” United Nations efforts to establish a humanitarian corridor in the strait to enable the delivery of vital aid, fertilizer and other goods.

It is the latest diplomatic effort by the U.S. and its Gulf allies after a watered-

down resolution aimed at opening the strait was vetoed by China and Russia hours before Washington and Tehran announced a temporary ceasefire in early April. The U.S. and Gulf nations proposed the new draft as the Trump administration tries to restore freedom of navigation in the strait, which carried about 20% of the world’s crude oil before the U.S. and Israel began the war on Feb. 28. The proposed resolution, which was drafted under Chapter 7 of the U.N Charter and thus could be enforced militarily threatens “effective measures that are commensurate with the gravity of the situation, including sanctions” if Iran doesn’t comply The earlier resolution removed a Chapter 7 reference but was still vetoed. The new draft resolution reaffirms the right of all countries to defend their vessels from attacks and provocations.

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Redistricting battles heat up across the country

Several states seize opportunity after ruling

BY TRAVIS LOLLER, KIM CHANDLER, DAVID A. LIEB and JEFFREY COLLINS Associated Press

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — As civil rights advocates protest, Republican lawmakers in several Southern states are seizing on the opportunity afforded by a U.S Supreme Court ruling to redraw congressional districts ahead of the November midterm elections. Protesters marched up to Tennessee’s Capitol on Tuesday as a special legislative session began that could carve up a majority-Black district in Memphis. In Alabama, meanwhile, Republicanlawmakerspressedahead with a plan that could upend the state’s congressional primaries. And Republican leaders in South Carolina announced Tuesday that would try to eliminate a House district held by a longtime Black Democratic lawmaker Louisiana lawmakers also are making plans for new U.S. House districts after the Supreme Court last week struck down the state’s current map. The high court’s ruling said Louisiana relied too heavily on race when creating a second Blackmajority House district as it attempted to comply with the Voting Rights Act. The ruling significantly altered a decades-old understanding of the law, giving Republicans in various states grounds to try to eliminate majority-Black districts that have elected Democrats. It could lessen congressional representation for Black Americans and other minorities, reversing decades of gains in minority voting rights.

resents predates the Voting Rights Act.

“Memphis has been a majority black district historically because that is where the population is,” he said. “It’s a district that is compact, and it has community purpose.”

Martin Luther King III sent a letter to Tennessee legislative leaders expressing “grave concern” about the plan to divide Memphis’ congressionalrepresentation.

tricts drawn by legislators in 2023,” said Republican state Rep. Chris Pringle, the bill’s sponsor During a House committee hearing, several Black residents urged lawmakers not to change the current congressional districts.

“Representation matters — not just politically but in access, in power and in who gets to be heard,” said Eliza Jane Franklin, of rural Barbour County

Democrats denounced legislation as a Republican power grab that harkens back to the state’s shameful history of denying Black residents equal rights and representation.

Republicans are “working to secure an electoral victory by taking Alabama back to the Jim Crow era, and we won’t go back,” Democratic U.S.

But some of the new districts could be competitive in November, meaning the parties may not get all they sought

The newly proposed redistricting in Southern states could add to the Republicans’ tally

S. Carolina to test its will Democratic U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn has represented South Carolina’s 6th Congressional District since it was redrawn to favor minority voters in 1992. He’s running for an 18th term. But that could get harder if Republicans redraw his district. Leaders in the state House and Senate said a redistrictingeffortneedstostartwitha two-thirds vote in each chamber The issue could come up as soon as Wednesday But if only a few Republicans aren’t on board, it can’t succeed.

“We don’t know if we have the votes in the House,” Republican Speaker Murrell Smith said.

Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey has warned

President Donald Trump has been encouraging more states to join in redistricting as Republicans seek to hold on to their narrow House majority in this year’s elections. Eight states already have adopted new U.S. districts ahead of the midterms. From that, Republicans think they could gain as many as 13 seats in five states, while Democrats think they could gain up to 10 seats from new districts in three other states

that redistricting could backfire because of thin political margins,resultinginasecond Democrat in the U.S. House.

Massey told reporters Tuesday that he had a cordial conversation with Trump about redistricting, each laying out their concerns.

The state’s primaries are June 9 and early voting starts in three weeks.

Tenn. targets Memphis

Republican Gov Bill Lee called Tennessee lawmakers into a special session to consider a plan urged by Trump that could break up the state’s lone Democraticheld U.S. House district, centered on the majorityBlack city of Memphis Republican lawmakers said little about the plan Tuesday

As the Senate began work, shouts of “shame, shame, shame” could be heard inside the chamber from protesters gathered in the hallways. On the chamber floor, Sen. Raumesh Akbari, a Black Democrat from Memphis, called the redistricting “an act of hate.”

At a rally earlier Tuesday state Rep. Justin Pearson of Memphis, who is running for Congress, denounced the Republican plan as a “racist redistricting.”

U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, who is white, said the Memphis-based district he rep-

“This decision undermines the work that my father, Dr Martin Luther King, Jr carried out to help secure passage of the Voting Rights Act,” he wrote, noting that his father was assassinated in Memphis.

The candidate qualifying period in Tennessee ended in March, and the primary election is scheduled for Aug. 6. Ala. looks at new primary Alabama legislative committees swiftly advanced legislation Tuesday that would allow a special congressional primary, if the Supreme Court clears the way for the state to change its U.S. House districts.

In light of the court’s ruling on Louisiana’s districts, Alabama officials have asked the high court to set aside a judicial order to use a U.S House map that includes two districts with a substantial number of Black voters and instead let the state revert to a map passed in 2023 by Republican lawmakers. That map could help the GOP win at least one of those two seats currently held by Democrats.

Alabama’s primaries are scheduled for May 19. If the Supreme Court grants the state’s request after or too close to the primary the legislation under consideration would ignore the results of that primary and direct the governor to schedule a new primary under the revised districts.

“This is an opportunity for the voters to vote in the dis-

Courtfast-tracks La.’smap redraw

BY MARK BALLARD Staff writer

WASHINGTON TheU.S. Supreme Court late Monday took the unusual step of accelerating its decision that has led Louisiana lawmakers to redraw the districts from which voters will elect sixrepresentatives to the U.S. House this fall.

The high court agreed to hurry its paperwork ordering lower courts to apply the new standards fromits decisionlast week to weaken the Voting Rights Act of 1965 in Louisiana v. Callais. Six conservative justices joined to find Louisiana’s 6th Congressional District, represented by U.S. Rep. Cleo Fields, D-BatonRouge, unconstitutionally reliedon race when drawn by the Legislature in 2024. The usual practice gives the Supreme Court 32 days to officially deliver its guidance for the lower courts to apply.This allows time for the losers to apply for a rehearing. Thehigh court’s decisionMonday night fasttracks that timeline. After the court’sCallais ruling last week, Gov.Jeff Landry suspended thecongressional election, early voting for which was to begin Saturday,toallow state lawmakers to pass anew, more GOP-friendly configuration of voting districts.

The court’semergency rulingclears the way legally for Louisiana legislators to redraw congressional maps. They are likely to dramatically change the district that Fields represents, but could also alter the 2nd Congressional District, the state’sother district that

MAP

Continued frompage1A

both Black districts.

As they undertakethat process, Republican lawmakers“absolutely” need to be careful about how they frameany decision to draw amajority-Black district intothe new map, said Michael Gilbert, an election law professor at the UniversityofVirginia.

“If there is any evidence that they were motivated to draw the lines they drew by racial considerations, that is probably unconstitutional,” Gilbert said.

If lawmakers did create such adistrict, it could be vulnerable to challenges like the one in the Louisiana v. Callais case thatcaused the Supreme Court to overturn the state’scurrent map, which has two majorityBlack seats. The courtruled the map violated the Constitution by using raceasa factor in the redistricting process.

Said Gilbert: “I know it’s possible to create adistrict that is majority-minority The question is whether the Legislature can say with a straight face they’re doingit for some nonracial reason.”

But Republicans are also concerned that drawing a map with no majority-Democratic districts could leave Republicans vulnerable.

Sen. Caleb Kleinpeter,

“The Court’sdecision in these cases has spawned chaosinthe State of Louisiana. Louisiana’shurried response to theCallais decision unfolds in the midst of an ongoing statewide election, against the backdrop of apitched redistricting battle among state governments that appear to be acting as proxiesfor theirfavored political parties.”

SUPREME COURT JUSTICE KETANJI BROWNJACKSON

includesenoughminority voters to give aBlackcandidate anopportunity to win. Thatdistrict is represented by Rep. Troy Carter,D-New Orleans.

Justice KetanjiBrown Jackson, who was nominated by Democratic President Joe Biden and opposed the majority’sCallais ruling, disagreedwithhastening usual protocols. Herdissent set off snipingwith conservative members of the court who were among the Callaismajority

Justice Samuel Alito, who was tapped by President George W. Bush,answered that Jackson’s dissent was “baseless and insulting.” Jackson pointed out that some mail ballots in Louisiana have already been distributed and somepeople have cast votes. Anumber of lawsuitschallenging Landry’selection delay have been filed by candidates and voters who have already cast ballots.She also noted that the Supreme Court had onlychosen to speed up its 32-day timeline twice before during the past 25 years.

“The Court’sdecision in thesecases hasspawned chaos in theState of Louisiana,”Jackson wrote in her dissent. “Louisiana’s hurried response tothe Callaisdecisionunfolds

R-PortAllen, said Monday thatLouisiana’sRepublican members of Congress“have serious concerns” about whether they could easily hold ontotheir districts underamap that has sixGOP districts

Robert Hogan, aprofessor andchair ofthe political science departmentatLSU, said creating one Democraticdistrictcouldhelp protect Louisiana’s powerful incumbentRepublicans, like U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson and Majority Leader Steve Scalise. Amap withsix GOP-leaning seats would add more Democratic voters to those districts, which could makeittougher for them to win reelection, he said.

TheSupreme Court in 2019 ruled that political considerations, likeprotecting incumbents,are legally permissible factors in redistricting

Gilbert saidlawmakers are allowed to draw adistrict to, forexample, protect incumbents or achieve another political objective —which just happens to be amajority-Black district

“That’sOKbecause in that caseit wouldn’t be race drivingthe decision,itwould be politics, which justhappens to correlatewith race,” he said.

Hogan echoed that perspective.

“They can’tuse race, but they can talk alot about political party,” he said. “I

in themidst of an ongoing statewide election, against the backdrop of apitched redistricting battle among state governments that appear to be acting as proxies for their favored political parties.”

Alito countered that the Robinson intervenors, the group of Black voters whoselawsuit led to the districtconfiguration at issue in Callais, didn’texpress an intent to askfor rehearing. His opinion was joined by conservative justices Clarence Thomas, whowas picked by Republican President GeorgeH.W.Bush, and Neil Gorsuch, whowas aPresident Donald Trump choice.

“The dissent goes on to claim that our decision represents an unprincipled use of power,” Alitowrote “That is agroundless and utterly irresponsible charge.”

Louisiana Attorney General LizMurrill said in a statement: “This case is a major win for Louisiana. We are moving forward immediately to ensure the constitutional rightsofour citizens are protected and to fixthe unconstitutional map. Louisiana is continuing to follow thelaw.”

Email Mark Ballard at mballard@theadvocate. com.

think alot of that is going to be focusing on what is advantageoustothe Republicans.”

Hogan also noted thatrace and partisanship “are very much aligned” in Louisiana —Black voters overwhelmingly vote Democratic.

He said map-drawers in the Legislatureare likely facing enormous pressure —both from President Donald Trump, who is demanding GOP-led legislatures across thecountrydeliver him moreRepublican seats in Congress— and from Louisiana’sBlack Democrats,who arecalling to keep two majority-Black districts.

Eliminating both majorityBlack districts“would be very detrimental to the relationship that Republicans have with theirAfricanAmerican, Democraticcolleagues,” Hogan said.

Sen. Sam Jenkins, DShreveport, said that, whether Republican lawmakers decide to eliminate either oneortwo Black districts, thatchoice necessarily takes race into account.

“Howdoyou explain that’s not race-based in some form?” he asked.

Landry says he’sconfident the state can find away to draw either a5-1 map or a 6-0 map.

“I think you can passjust about any kind of defensible map if you put the right type of evidence intothe record,” thegovernor said.

is no ongoing threat to the public.

Judice initially reported that three plant workers andthreefirefighters —all first responders from local fire departments —were transported tohospitals for exposure-related treatment.Bymidafternoon, thatnumber was updated to 10 by State Police.

Those hospitalized in-

clude threefirst responders, six employees of the affected business and one employee fromanearby business. Injuries are not believed to be life-threatening.

Judice said crewsmay briefly turn the valve back on undercontrolledconditions to test the integrity of the system

He emphasized that personnelfromthe company, alongwith State Policeand otheragencies, were on-site and prepared to respond immediately to any complications.

“They’re telling me the threat levelisveryminimalfor any additional release, and that we’reingood hands with the professionals on the scene,” Judice said.

LouisianaStatePolice is leading the investigation, which remains ongoing. Additional information will be released as it becomes available.

Staff writer Jakori Madison contributed to this report.

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byist forthe Jones Walker law firm in Baton Rouge.

“That’swhere Idrawthe line, John,” she told Fleming. “I would never bring yourwife into this.”

Fleming said his comments were fair game because, in his opinion, Letlow mischaracterizedhis side work for aWashington, D.C., firm.

Letlow said Fleming lobbies forthe McKeon Group, while Fleming said he only acts as an “adviser.”

In an interview after the debate, Flemingsaidhe earns $1,000per month from McKeon to provide strategic advice and said he is allowed to do this work while serving as Louisiana’s treasurer Fleming repeatedly said that Gov.Jeff Landry who has endorsed Letlow —isworking behind the scenes to ensure her election.

At one point, Letlow felt compelled to remind Fleming that he is running against her,not the governor The fiery accusations that Fleming and Letlowleveled at each other duringthe debate —and aslew of attack ads by pro-Letlow forces against Fleming —indicate that each candidate wants to eliminate the other from the race after the votes are counted in theRepublican primary on May 16. It appears unlikelythat any of the three candidates would receiveover 50%of the vote. That would mean the top two finishers would advancetoa Republican runoff on June 27. Cassidy,for his part, told reportersonMondaythat Letlow is the front-runner, and his goal is to knock her out. All of this indicates that Cassidy would rather face Fleming in the June runoff, while Fleming and Letlow would rather face him.

Therules for the Senate electionhave remained un-

from page1A

conditions” of asettlement.

The SchoolBoard, he said, made changes that werenot acceptable to the plaintiffs.

Settlement negotiations, Hammons said, “haveproven to be unfruitful.”

Brian Blackwell, attorney for parent Suzanne LaJaunie and other plaintiffs, said afterMonday’smeetingthat he was disappointed.

“Wepresentedwhat we thought wasa reasonable proposal,and theboard rejected it,” he said.

Gotch-Garrett heard testimonyuntil just after 11 a.m. Tuesday before suspending the hearing until 8:30 a.m. Wednesday.She advised board members not to discuss the case with anyone, including their attorneys.

The delay gives GotchGarrett time to review a recording of the April15

Conservativetalk radio host Moon Griffonhosts adebate between Senate candidates U.S. Rep. Julia Letlowand state Treasurer John FlemingonTuesdayinthe KPEL

Lafayette.

changed after theU.S. SupremeCourt ruled last week that Louisiana’sHouse map is an unconstitutional racial gerrymander,and Landry canceled the May 16 House elections. Those elections will be held later this year afterthe state Legislature this month draws anew mapfor Louisiana’ssix House districts. Early voting is underway through Saturday in the Senateelection —and also forother races, including fiveconstitutional amendments. Voters are reporting that thechanges arecausingconfusion. Asurvey conductedby NewOrleanspollster Greg Rigamershowed Letlow with 35% of the Senate Republican primaryvote, while Fleming and Cassidy werevirtuallytied at 21% Thepollof600 likelyRepublican primary voters wasconducted from April 28-30and paid for by major lobbyist Alton Ashy Fleming andCassidy, however,have each said they have seen polls showingthemselves leading the race. In an interview the day before the debate, Cassidy

meeting where the board rescinded the vote to close ComeauxHigh after board member Joshua Edmond testified that the board’s legal team said it could rescind the March 12 vote despite the judge’s injunction. It was aroundthistime in thehearing that the plaintiffs’ attorney requested a privateconversation with the judge over concerns about Edmond’sconstitutional rights.

said Griffon “hates” him andthatFleming andLetlowbuy favorwith the radio host by purchasing ad time on his program.

Griffon mostlyplayedit straight during Tuesday’s debateasheasked questionsofthe two candidates, whostood side by side at podiums squeezed into arefashionedconferenceroom. Also servingasa moderator was Jeff Beimfohr,ananchor at KTBS-TV in Shreveport.

Beimfohr had hoped to moderate one of thethree televised, primetime debates that Cassidy sought during the Republican primary.But Letlow agreed only to thedebate during Griffon’sregularlyscheduled talk radio program, which includedcommercial breaks that reduced the actual air timetoabout 70 minutes.

Letlow came to thedebate prepared to noterepeatedly that she hasTrump’sendorsement.

Flemingcameprepared to undermine her point by noting thatheservedas Trump’sdeputy chief of staff during the president’s first term and had astrong-

Gotch-Garrett, after the sidebar,said she was suspending the hearingafter counsel raised theissue of whether the School Board should be heldincontempt of courtbecausemembers knewabout herinjunction before theApril 15 vote. She told Edmond that when court resumesWednesday morning shemay advisehim of his rights.

Contact Claire Taylor at ctaylor@theadvocate.com.

ly conservative voting record during his eight years in theHouse.

Fleming said he never had thechancetoget Trump’s endorsement because the president’ssenior aides kept him from asking for the endorsement. Fleming blamed Landry’sinfluence with the president. Fleming said he finallygot to talk to Trump, andTrump told him thathe’s“fantastic.”

Letlow sought to undermine Fleming’sclaim by saying it showsthatthe state treasurer has no stroke with Trump.

“My opponent was running for 13 months and couldn’tget in touch with the president,” Letlow said. “Thattells youall youneed to know.Ican pick up the phone and easily access himbecause Ihave hiscell number.”

Whilethe debate highlighted their differences, Fleming andLetlowagreed on anumberofissues.

They both said they oppose abortion, mandated vaccines and giving more aid to Ukraine in its war with Russia

In responsetoaquestion from Griffon, they both said they would not have voted with Cassidy to convict Trumponimpeachment charges of inciting the assault on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

“There was absolutely no reason to believethat Donald Trump was guilty,” Letlow said. “That wasthe worst mistakethatCassidy could have made. He turned his back on Louisiana voters, and they have never forgotten it.” Fleming said “arguably the 2020 election wasstolen, and President Trump, thankgoodness, overcame it and returned to office. We’veresearched Julia Letlow’sstatements about this andwecan find nothing where she actually defendedTrump during Lawfare.”

After the debate, Letlow and Fleming both pronounced themselves satisfied at having the chance to describe theirviews and contrast their records.

Cruise ship struck by rare virus remains anchored

Crew,

nearly 150 passengers await evaluations

BY CHINEDU ASADU and ANNIE RISEMBERG Associated Press

PRAIA, Cape Verde Footage

obtained by The Associated Press of a cruise ship at the center of a rare-virus outbreak shows deserted decks and gathering areas, medical teams in protective gear, and a still landscape ahead as the vessel and its nearly 150 passengers and crew waited another day off the coast of West Africa.

Three passengers have died and at least four people have been sick in what health officials say is an outbreak of hantavirus, which usually spreads by inhaling contaminated rodent droppings. The World Health Organization said passengers are isolating in their cabins.

The company that operates the vessel — currently anchored in the Atlantic off Cape Verde — said it plans to move to Spain’s Canary Is-

lands once three people have been medically evacuated and put on specially equipped planes to the Netherlands.

Earlier Tuesday, Spanish officials said that they were monitoring the situation and hadn’t made a decision.

The MV Hondius, a Dutch ship on a weekslong polar cruise, departed April 1 from Argentina for Antarctica and several isolated islands in the South Atlantic.

“Our days have been close to normal, just waiting for authorities to find a solution,” passenger Qasem Elhato, 31 who sent AP the video footage — said via WhatsApp. “But morale on the ship is high and we’re keeping ourselves busy with reading, watching movies, having hot drinks and that kind of things.”

Helene Goessaert, another passenger, told Belgian broadcaster VRT that everyone on board is “in the same boat, literally.”

“You don’t embark on a trip with the idea that one of your fellow passengers won’t make it,” she said

“We receive information at regular intervals It is accu-

doesn’t usually spread person to person, though health authorities say it might be possible.

Elhato said passengers were wearing masks and social distancing — practices that became hallmarks of the COVID-19 pandemic Ship operator Oceanwide Expeditions said it had implemented its highest level of response, with isolation measures, hygiene protocols and medical monitoring.

tion happens, the ship plans to sail to the Canary Islands, either Gran Canaria or Tenerife, a voyage of some three days, the company said in its statement, adding that “discussions are ongoing with relevant authorities.”

rate. For the rest, it is a waiting game,” she added. “Today we received fresh fruit and fresh vegetables. That was very important to us.”

Evacuation plans unclear

Authorities in Cape Verde have said they sent teams of doctors, surgeons, nurses and laboratory specialists to the Hondius They were seen in Elhato’s video footage — wearing white overalls, boots and face masks as they disembarked to a

Trump pauses effort to guide stranded vessels out of strait

Blockade will remain in place

BY AAMER MADHANI Associated Press

WASHINGTON President Donald Trump says that he has paused the U.S. effort to guide stranded vessels out of the Strait of Hormuz to finalize an Iran deal Trump announced the decision in a social media post on Tuesday evening, saying he was pausing the effort for a short period to give space

for U.S. efforts to finalize a settlement with Iran to end the war

Trump in the post said he was making the move based “on the request of Pakistan and other Countries, the tremendous Military Success that we have had during the Campaign against the Country of Iran and, additionally, the fact that Great Progress has been made toward a Complete and Final Agreement with Representatives of Iran.”

He added that the U.S. blockade of the strait would

remain in place.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment offering further detail about the progress in negotiations that Trump alluded to in his posting.

The announcement came after military leaders and Secretary of State Marco Rubio insisted on Tuesday that a ceasefire in the Middle East was still holding and that while the conflict is not resolved — the initial major U.S. military operation against Iran has concluded.

smaller vessel.

Officials in Cape Verde’s capital of Praia, a city of less than 200,000 people, said they have stepped up safety protocols, particularly near the port, as a precautionary measure against the rodent-borne illness — which

Oceanwide Expeditions said Tuesday evening that two specialized aircraft were flying to Cape Verde to evacuate two people who need urgent medical care and one person who was traveling with a German woman who died on board Saturday They were to be taken to the Netherlands, though exactly when that would happen was not immediately clear Once the medical evacua-

Spanish health officials had said in an earlier statement that they were monitoring and that “the most appropriate port of call will be decided. Until then, the Ministry of Health will not adopt any decision, as we have informed the World Health Organization.”

WHO said Tuesday that it’s lookingatsevencasesinall— three people who have died, one critically ill passenger who was previously taken off the ship, and three on board reporting mild symptoms. Two of the cases a woman who died and the evacuated man tested positive for hantavirus.

Fewer audit findings for Lafayette

But $5.8M in spending questioned

BY STEPHEN MARCANTEL Staff writer

Lafayette Consolidated Government, under Mayor-President Monique Boulet, has nearly eliminated previous audit findings obtained under Josh Guillory.

There were five audit findings for the 2025 fiscal year down from 11 in the previous year, according to the Louisiana Legislative Audi-

Gray Media to own KATC, KADN

FCC signs off on deal, reports say

BY ADAM DAIGLE

Acadiana business editor

The Federal Communications Commission has given the OK for two Lafayette TV stations to be acquired by the same media company

On Friday, the FCC approved the deal to allow Gray Media to acquire KADN and KLAF, days after approving a swap involving E.W. Scripps that gives Gray ownership of KATC, reports indicate.

The approvals come nearly a year after they were first announced and give Gray Media a duopoly in Lafayette. It marked a difference from 10 years ago, when Nexstar’s attempt at a duopoly in Lafayette failed to win FCC approval in its bid to acquire KLFY

The deal involving KADN was part of a $171 million transaction between Gray and Byron Allen Media that was announced back in August The KATC-Gray deal was announced in July Gray now reaches 117 full-power markets and covers 37% of the country’s television households, reports indicate Gray now has one station in every TV market in Louisiana.

In Lafayette, changes are anticipated now that KADN/KLAF and KATC are owned by the same company Both stations have historically trailed KLFY, but if the two stations combine news staffs, it could give the two stations enough combined firepower to overtake KLFY

Email Adam Daigle at adaigle@ theadvocate.com.

tor’s Office’s report. Since Boulet took office, most findings have been holdovers from the Guillory administration, which was dinged with nearly 30 findings in 2022.

But now only one of those findings can be attributed to Guillory, with four new problems cropping up in 2025.

Findings 1-2

Two findings arose when LCG

was found to have used around $859,000 in proceeds from the issuance of public improvement bonds to fund a grant award covering the engineering, architectural and construction costs of a building owned by a nonprofit organization. LCG lacked internal controls over the evaluation and approval of capital projects funded with bond proceeds, with management not performing a legal or compliance review to ensure that ownership rights to the assets were established before bond funds were

used, according to the report.

Finding 3

LCG did not have adequate internal control over the preparation and presentation of the Schedule of Expenditures of Federal Awards.

The documents contained multiple errors, including omissions of federal expenditures and misstatements of reported expenditures.

As a result, errors in grant activity were not identified and corrected in a timely manner, which risks noncompliance with report-

ing requirements and impacts the accuracy of SEFA used for major program determination.

Finding 4

LCG did not maintain effective internal controls over the reconciliation of various balance sheet accounts, with some accounts not reconciled in a timely manner or prepared at all. Numerous instances required corrective entries during the audit process.

Community mourns slain student

Teen shot on his way to football practice, reports say

BY JA’KORI MADISON Staff writer

A Ville Platte High student has died after a shooting Monday The victim was identified in statements from city officials as Javion Simien. The shooting occurred on Dr Martin Luther King Drive in Ville Platte, where media reports say the teen was shot on his way to football practice. Authorities have not released additional details or confirmed any information publicly The incident has led to an outpouring of grief across the community, including from Ville Platte

High School, which described the student as a “sweet spirit” and “one of our own.”

“Our hearts are heavy as we mourn the loss of one of our own a ninth grade Bulldog, gone too soon,” the school said in a statement. “Javion was a sweet spirit who brought light wherever he went. His bright smile, love for sports, and laughter could lift any room.” The school added that grief counseling would be made available for students and staff as the community processes the loss. Ville Platte officials also issued a statement expressing condolences and calling for community support and reflection in the wake of the shooting

PLENTy OF PLANTS TO PICK

ABOVE: Attendees walk under an ivy arch to the Sunset Herb and Garden Festival on Sunday. The festival was rescheduled due to a rain delay.

LEFT: A trio manages their plant purchases.

Northside High principal back on job after leave

BY STEPHEN MARCANTEL Staff writer

But questions linger over Boosie visit Rollins

Officials in the statement also called on parents, families and mentors to remain actively

“As mayor of our city, myself, our city council, and the entire Ville Platte community we come together today in prayer,” the statement said. “Our hearts are heavy as we mourn the tragic loss of Mr Javion Simien to gun violence.”

Northside High School Principal James Rollins has returned to his role after being placed on administrative leave after bringing in a Louisiana rapper to the school last week. Officials with the Lafayette Parish school system confirmed that Rollins has returned to work but declined to comment further, citing the matter as a personnel one. It also never gave a reason for placing Rollins on administrative leave. Rollins was placed on leave

sometime after an appearance last Wednesday by rapper Torrence “Boosie“ Hatch at Northside High School. The system did not confirm a connection between Hatch’s appearance and Rollins’ leave. Sources told The Acadiana Advocate that Hatch visited the school with state Rep. Tehmi Chassion, D-Lafayette, without district approval, violating system policy Hatch took to social media, asking the district to return Rollins to his position.

OUR VIEWS

Yetagain, aJazzFest forthe ages

There was something magical about how the skies cleared and the temperature and humidity dropped for the last two glorious days of this year’sNew Orleans Jazz&Heritage Festival.

In truth, throughout the festival’seight days over two long weekends,wewere reminded yet again that the annual extravaganza at the Fair Grounds is always magical, rain —and yes, we saw plenty of that too —or shine. The numbers tell part of the story.With headliners Stevie Nicks and the Eagles drawing hugecrowds both Saturdays, some 475,000 people poured through the gates. That wasn’ta record —500,000 showed up in 2024, the year the Rolling Stones finally played after twofalse starts —but it was an increase overlast year’s total attendance of 460,000. And for the first time in the fest’shistory,organizers declared a sellout on the second Saturday

The rest of the tale played out in countless individualpleasures: The discovery of an upand-coming local band or chance tosee aliving legend up close. Hearing multiple Grammywinner and Kenner native Jon Batistehappily shout “Hello, Home” from the big stage, watching Baskin native Lainey Wilson gamelyplay throughatorrential storm or dancing tohomegrown superstar Trombone Shorty’sannual closing set. The transporting tasteofanold favorite dish or that rare new one that made organizers’ exacting cut (charbroiled oysters? Yes, please). Encounterswithold friends we see yearafter year and new ones we meet in the bathroom line.

And everywhere, Louisiana’s easygoing, welcoming vibe.

We’re always gratifiedtowatch fest visitors absorb what makes this place special. This year,that number included singer and Georgia native Teddy Swims, who graciously donned aSaints jersey forhis Festival Stage set, and also found time to sing on Bourbon Street and discoverthe wonders of Irma Thomas’ voice.

We’re also keenly aware thatittakes avillage to make all this areality.Sowewant to salute everyone involved —the musicians, the vendors, the legions of volunteers —for doing their part with such gusto. We also want to recognize the companies that make the fest financially feasible, including title sponsor Shell, which stepped up in the dark days after Hurricane Katrina and has now been backing the fest for two decades.

And it’snot like Jazz Fest is the only thing going on. New Orleans wrapped up French Quarter Festjust days before the Fair Grounds gates opened. Downtown Lafayettehosted Festival International de Louisiane, another of our state’sgems, at the same time. Countless other cultural celebrations large, medium and small dot the calendar all over Louisiana.

These festivals are important economic drivers, and we know that Jazz Fest whets visitors’ and locals’ appetites to explore further

We also know how lucky we are that we have this all in our backyards —and thatweget to do it again next year

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

OPINION

Uselegislation to help, notharm, thehomeless

Iserve as the rector of Holy Cross in downtown Shreveport. We also operate aday shelter down thestreet at HolyCross HopeHouse

Since 2019, our “deposit-first” ministry has housed over 500 people. Our program is acommon-sense solution. Many homelesspeople lack the cash to pay theupfrontcosts of housing. We provide the necessary money, along with caseworker visits and support, andclasses on various life skills

The legislatureisconsidering House Bill 211, which will establish “homelessness courts” to serveasa mitigating factor in revamping the state’svagrancy laws.

This bill will unnecessarily burden thevery people it purportedly seeks to help. It will unfairly penalize an already complex issue with complex causes. It will add alayer of bureaucracy to a processalready mired in bureaucratic snipe hunts. It will erode trust in service organizations that have been

working for years to help apeople alreadydistrustfulofhelping hands. Simply put,it’sthe state attempting to solve asocial issue with all the precision of the criminaljustice system. Homelessness is acomplex problem, but it is not an impossible one. We’ve managed to change the lives of over 500 people with little more than thegumption to do something andnot asingle pair of handcuffs. While Iapplaud the desire to help thehomeless, this bill is notthe answer Perhaps the state could marshal itsresources to assist in other ways. Mitigatethe risk for landlords to take on homeless tenants. Examine the banking regulations that make it impossible to get ahome loan in certain neighborhoods.Consider public funding for morehousing first programs like theone we have at Holy Cross.

THE REV.GARRETT BOYTE rector,Holy Cross Shreveport

Polioimmunizationwas asuccess

Askanyone in our area under 40 years old what polio is and you’ll likely get ablank stare. In atime when many have forgotten thethreat of infectious diseases like polio, as aRotary member,Ihave adutytoremind people that polio anywhere is athreat everywhere.

The polio vaccine is one of thegreatest public health achievements of our time, protecting against aparalyzing and potentially life-threatening virus that once struck fear in the hearts of our parents and grandparents prior to theadvent of the vaccine in 1955. Since 1988, RotaryInternational and its partners in theGlobal Polio Eradication Initiative have reduced polio cases by 99.9% worldwide, sparing morethan 20 million people from paralysis.

Although some may view polio immunization as optional for themselves

or their children because it isn’tcurrently circulating where they live or because they don’trealize that the infection can be life-threatening, history has shown that polio doesn’trespect borders.

The consequences forthose who contract and survive polio may be crippling, profound and permanent. In 2022, the U.S. saw its first case of polio in decades in acommunity with low immunization rates. During World Immunization Week at the end of April, Iinvited all toensure that we and our children are fully immunized against polio. Someone did it forus, now it is our turn to protect those coming after us.

Learnmore about progress in the global fight to end polio at endpolio. org.

GREG LANDRY

Rotary’s Public Image, District6200 Chair

Welcomeour AI overlordstogovernus

I’m just throwing this idea out there for comment. What if we replaced every member of Congress with artificial intelligence? From my perspective, it may

be an improvement. No salary.Nofree perks. No extended vacations. No partisanship. No political parties. DAVE HEBERT Lafayette

Abuses justify greater transparency in BatonRouge family court

KimSport’srecent letter opposing House Bill 278 overstates what the bill does and shifts attention away from the accountability concerns that led to it.

Rather than directly addressing whygreater transparency is being sought in East Baton Rouge Family Court, the letter frames HB278 as a threat to abuse victims, children and privacy.But the bill itself contains safeguards, including in-chambers testimony forminors in certain circumstances, the use of initials or pseudonymsincustody matters and closure of custody hearings upon a showing of good cause on the record and written agreement of the parties. Those are not the features of a reckless bill. They are the features of abill attempting to balance privacy with accountability

The larger issue is not whether sensitive matters deserve protection; they do. The real question is whether acourt exercising enormouspower over children, custody,support, protective orders, contempt, family integrity and the financial survival of litigants should remain so shielded from public scrutiny while families endure prolonged proceedings, escalating costs, repeated enforcement actions and serious financial pressure. It is especially troubling when the real fears of abuse victimsand the real need to protect children are used to defend secrecy rather than accountability.Those concerns deserve respect, but they should not becomerhetorical shields that block scrutiny of acourt exercising extraordinary power over families. Most telling is the waythe letter redirects attention away from Family Court itself and toward the supposed motives of those supporting reform. Public accountability is not cruelty.Itisasafeguard. If East Baton Rouge Family Court is functioning fairly and honorably,then measured transparency should strengthen public confidence in it, not threaten it. If transparency is treated as adanger the public is entitled to ask why.

KATHERINE DIAMOND Baton Rouge

Redistrictingreformers arehypocrites

Hypocrisy was triumphant,as it usually is in arguments over redistricting, in Virginia as votersapproved a“fairness” constitutional amendmentallowingthe Democratic-majoritylegislaturetoenact acongressional districting plan that is expected to increase Democrats’ edge in its congressional delegation from6-5 to 10-1. This is a state that former Vice President Kamala Harris carried over then-candidate Donald Trump by a52% to 46% margin Before this year,Virginia Democrats had been bragging about the bipartisan redistricting process they created and voters approvedin2020. Each party was to appoint an expert, and if they agreed on aplan, it wasadopted. After the 2020 Census, Virginia’s congressional map was drawn by politicalscientists Bernard Grofman and Sean Trende, alongtime friendof Grofman. The result was four strongly Democratic districts, fourless strongly Republican ones, two narrowly Democratic seats in Northern Virginia, and one true tossup in the Hampton Roads region In aDemocratic-leaningyear,as 2026 appears to be, Democrats could easily win seven or eight of these seats, and, in amore Republican-leaningyear than 2024, Republicans could easily winsix or maybe seven. About what you’d expect in a52-46 Democratic state But when Trump successfully urged Texas Republicans last summer to revise their post-2020 plan andsaid he hoped they might winanadditional five seats, Virginia Democrats sidelined —just temporarily,they said —their heartfelt commitment to bipartisan districting and set about putting in place their plan to gain four seats.

force in the Lower Rio Grande Valley And Virginia voters’ approval of the Democrats’ plan by only 51% to 49% margin, in astate that elected Democrat Abigail Spanberger governor last November bya 58% to 42% margin, suggests that their new bacon strip maynot elect all Democrats (my candidateisthe lobster-shaped 7th district).

Whostarted all this? Virginia Democrats blame Texas Republicans. National Democrats, including former President Barack Obama and his attorney general, Eric Holder,blame Republicans empowered by Tea Party gains in the2010 off-year elections, just in time to redistrict with thenew 2010 Census figures.

The good news is that there’sapenalty,exacted by voters, for hypocrisy Texas Republicans’new plan looks unlikely to net the promised five seats, given the collapse of Trump’spopularity among Hispanic voters, amajority

Partisan districting goes back alot further than that. The original gerrymander was produced by America’s fifthvice president, Elbridge Gerry, who was born in 1744. Gerry,arevolutionary and aditherer,signed the Declaration of Independence and attended the Constitutional Convention but declined to sign thedocument. He professed to oppose political parties but,asaMassachusetts anti-federalist, designed an Essex County district that acartoonist famously depicted as asalamander —the original gerrymander In the2000s and especially in the post-Obamacare 2010s, Republicans had ademographic advantage in redistricting: Democratic voters became highlyconcentrated in central cities, sympathetic suburbs and university towns, while Republican voters were more evenly spreadacross the restof thecountry.That Republican advantage has lessened in the Trumpyears, as manyareas outside million-plus metroareas have becomeheavily Republican, while Hispanic and Black areas in central cities, at least in 2024, have become less Democratic. Still, the most grotesquely shaped congressional districts post-2020 have been in heavily Democratic Illinois, where thedistrict shapes on amap look

like bacon strips extending outward from politically connected Chicago wards and close-in suburbs extending out across miles of prairie. Virginia Democrats’ plan, provided it’sapproved by thestate SupremeCourt, is of asimilar ilk. Youcan drive across five district lines in afew minutes in Northern Virginia’sArlington or Fairfax counties, knowing all thewhile that it might takefour or five hours to drive through those districts’ extensions out to theShenandoah Valley or Southside. Equally grotesque, in my view,are Republican mapsthat slice up Democratic central cities with just about the right population for asingle district. Examples include thepost-2020 Tennessee plan that slices up Nashville, and the post-2024 Missouri plan that slices up Kansas City. Asimilar plan in Indiana was defeated in December 2025 by Republican statesenators. It would have sliced Indianapolis four ways and divided thehistorically Democratic steel mill areas around Lake Michigan (where Chief Justice John Roberts grew up).

My own experience analyzing and occasionally drawing districts, starting in the post-1960 cycle, convinces me there’snopolitically neutral way to define what is unduly partisan districting. Supposedly nonpartisan commissions staffed by political scientists produce what you’dexpect from aprofession that votes 95% Democratic. Electing House membersstatewideorbyproportional representation severs any members’ connections with localities and disenfranchises millionsinlarge states. Virginia Democratsactually did a pretty good job of creating aminimally partisan redistricting process.Now,six years later,they’ve voted tokill it only temporarily,they say.Proof once again that, as Iwrotesome years ago, all process arguments are insincere, including this one.

Michael Barone is on X, @MichaelBarone.

Symptoms of ourgovernment’sdenial of climatechangereality areeverywhere

For some time, it’sbeen obviousthat

President Donald Trump, Gov. Jeff Landry and the politicianswho follow them are afflicted by CCDS andGEP

An unworkable butusefulthought experiment aboutguns

America has spent decades passing (and frequently repealing) creative ways to makeitharder to buy guns. After all that effort, what do we have to show forit? Hundreds of millions of guns in circulation and agun homicide rate of 4.7 per 100,000 people. Maybe we’re looking at the problem wrong. Maybe instead of putting so much energy into efforts to keep people from buying guns, we should be trying to change which guns they buy.Instead of trying to makegun purchases moreonerous, we should try something more radical: Help people buy long guns instead of handguns.

No, Ihaven’tgone crazy.I’ve just been reading a provocative new paper from economists Bradley Shapiro, Sara Drango and Sarah Moshary

They start from afew simple and correct premises. First, handguns are associated with more harm than long guns —they are involved in 90 percent of firearm violence and ahuge number of suicides. People own significantly morehandguns because they are just easier to carry around and easier to conceal.

Second, mostpeople whobuy guns say they wantthem forpersonal or household safety That’sause forlong guns as well. Displacing handgun purchases with purchases of less convenient long guns could reduce the likelihood of tragedy when the owner becomes angry or despondent.

So, what if the government gave first-timegun buyers asubsidy to choose along gun instead?

If you’re thinking this is not aserious proposal, well, it isn’t, exactly.It’smore of athought experiment, not apolicy brief.The authors estimate that under optimal (read: unrealistic) conditions, their idea could prevent up to 275 deaths ayear at acost of up to $1.5 billion. Under morerealistic conditions, that number would be lower,maybe none —and it might be too costly to even consider.Other implementation hurdles would also be daunting, to say the least.

That’sClimate Change Derangement Syndrome and Green EnergyPhobia —both of which are brought onbyLOM Love of Money

Bob Marshall

The symptomsinclude denying theexistence and impact of climate change even in the face of overwhelming evidence (accelerating sea level rise more and larger fires,droughts, floods and hurricanes) while fightingthe cure —the conversation to green energy with every governmental weapon at their disposal.

And that’sbecause of LOM. Climate impacts, including the drowningof Louisiana’scoast, are caused byemissions from the use of oil,gas andcoal producedbyindustries funding politicians’ campaigns The last few weeks haveshown some of the most damaging examples of these maladies.

Many come from Trump’s2026-2027 budget proposal, the followingexamples of which expose the seriousness of his CCDS and GEP:

n Canceling $15.2 billion in Department of Energy funding forrenewable projects.

n Slashing $449 million from renewable energy initiatives that were part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law

n A$1.6 billion cut to theNational Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’sOffice of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research targeting“climatedominated research programs.”

n Cutting $3.4 billion from the science budget of NASA, an agency Trump thinks spends too much time on climate research.

n Eliminating $4 billion in DepartmentofTransportation funds for EV charger programs,whichwould addressthe biggest concern forpotential EV buyers: finding rechargingstations.

n Endingtax credits for EV battery manufacturers, another blow to EV sales.

n Cutting U.S. contributionstothe

Global Environment Facility and Climate Investment Funds. Of course, Trump earlier withdrew from the Paris Climate Accords, joining Iran, Libya andYemen as the only nations outside that effort.

n Cutting $1.1 billion from theDOE Office of Science, which supports national labsworking on climate issues.

n Spending billions in taxpayer money to cancel offshore wind leases, with companies agreeing to reinvest in domestic fossil fuels.

n Allocating$18 billion in new and expanded tax incentives for the oil and gasindustry,including bonuses and exemptions.

n Reducing fees energy companies pay to extract oil and gas on public lands andwaters, which meansless money to state and federal budgets.

n “Repurposing” billions in DOE fundingoriginally for green energy to “firm baseload power” like natural gas and coal.

n Slowing fees on methanegas, the mostpotent greenhouse gas, which benefitsindustries producing it.

Youcan see Trumpisflipping the script of previous Democratic and GOP administrations from trying to reduce emissions to increasing them. This, even as the costs of those impacts, including unaffordable home insurance in Louisiana, have risen tens of billionsofdollars ayear Indeed, Trump seemstobevery sick with CCDS and CEP.Ofcourse, his

Emissions rise from the smokestacks at the Jeffrey Energy Center coal powerplant as the suns sets near Emmett, Kan., in 2021. AP FILE PHOTO

LOM plays alarge role. After all, he promised all of this and more to theoil industry if they pledged $1 billion to his campaign.

Landry’ssymptomsstartwith his unqualified support for each of Trump’s moves andpromises

Butwhen you’re thepolitical leader of the state that faces the most immediateand long-term impacts from climate change, this amounts to political malpractice.

Ourcoast is considered the most vulnerable to sea level rise in thenation because it’s sinking at the sametime sea level rise is accelerating. The oil and gas industry is largely responsible for both of those disasters. It dredged more than 10,000 miles of canals to recover oil and gas, destroying the hydrology of our wetlands, and theemissions from itsproducts cause sea level rise.

ButLandry is supporting Louisiana House Bill 804, known as theLouisiana Energy Protection Act, which would deny residentstheir right to sue oil and gas companies for economic damages caused by climate change. The only cure for CCDS and GEP is elections. Let’shope that happens before they rename ourstate Oilyana.

Bob Marshall, aPulitzer Prize-winning Louisianaenvironmental journalist, can be reached at bmarshallenviro@ gmail.com, and followed on X, @BMarshallEnviro.

Then whyare we talking about it? Because it offers amore productive way to think about gun policy Gunpolicy in America is often atug of warbetween two groups: people whodon’town guns and don’tsee whyanyone would wantto, and people whowant to own alot of them. The former group often seemswilling to impose any inconvenience on the latter if the intervention will be minimally effective. The latter unsurprisingly resents this and also suspects that what the other group would really like to do is take away all their guns.

This is not helpful. Gunviolence is ascourge that makes all manner of things worse in society It makes cities worse because people are rationally afraid of being shot and either stay homeor take expensive countermeasures such as Ubering instead of walking. It makes policing harder because officers are (also rationally) afraid of being shot and try to minimize that risk with preemptive aggression. It also results in countless deaths. These are bad things, and society has an interest in mitigating those harms.

But we have mostly tried to address them by making gun ownership moredifficult, and that has practical as well as political problems.

The practical problem is that it’sdifficult (and often unconstitutional) to enact restrictions that motivated criminals can’tget around. The political dilemma is that gun owners whobear the costs of those policies are often single-issue voters on gun control, while the other side isn’t. For people whosupport gun control, it’sone of manyleftwing policy commitments, rarely topping the list. That’swhy limiting gun access has been such a political bust, even though aclear majority of Americans support tighter restrictions.

The three economists’ paper sidesteps that debate by examining the problem purely in terms of harm reduction. It’s like safeinjection sites for drug users. Sure, we could try to hassle people until they stop using, but we tried that and people are still doing drugs, so what if we instead tried to maketheir dangerous hobby as safeaspossible?

The irony of advocating formore long guns instead of handguns is that mostpeople whosupport safeinjection sites would probably hate it, and vice versa. People have strong moral viewsabout drug use and gun ownership, and they don’twant apolicy that makes something they abhor less dangerous; they want apolicy that makes it less.

Iwon’targue that they’re wrong, either.America would be abetter place with less fentanyl and fewerguns. Ijust don’tsee how to get there, and certainly not without incredible cost to personal liberty.Soit’srefreshing to consider aproposal that looks to work with gun owners instead of against them —tellingly,the title of the paper is “Firearm Policy Buyers Would Accept.” In the real world, Idoubt we’re going to pay people to buy ashotgun instead of ahandgun. But Ican’thelp wondering what other,more practical policies we might be able to develop, if more people thought about the problem like that.

MeganMcArdle is on X, @asymmetricinfo. Email her at Megan.McArdle@washpost.com.

Domino refinery begins nearly $800Mexpansion

Plan solidifies Louisiana’s centralrolein sugartrade

BY JONAH MEADOWS Staff writer

The Florida-based owners of the117-year-old Domino Sugar Chalmette Refinery announced Tuesday they have begun construction on the first phase of anearly $800 million expansion at the facility,aninvestment that signals Louisiana’s continued central role in the American sugar trade. Executives from plant owner ASRGroup,the world’slargestrefiner of cane sugar,were joined by stateand parish officials for the groundbreaking of anew processingbuilding at the Arabi refinery, the largest in the Western Hemisphere

“This is the cornerstone of our American business. This is the biggest, most important asset we have,” said Luis Fernandez, president and chair of West Palm Beach-based ASR Group In the expansion’sinitial phase,which is expected to cost more than $200 million, the company is building a 40,000-square-foot filtration building.

Subsequent phases, still in the planning stages, will include continued expansion of the new building

“This is the largest capital project we’ve ever undertaken as acompany,” Fernandez said. “This is a big, big project. It reflects our commitment to innovation, our employees and the community here that we proudly call home.”

Dubbed ProjectLafitte, the refinery expansion will create 15 direct newjobs, adding to acurrent workforce of about 500 employees, according to company and state economic development officials.

The new building is being built on an 8.2-acre parcel ASR purchased from Sidney Torres last year. It will allow ASR to replace filtrationequipment,some of which is as much as 80 years old, used to purify raw sugar syrup by separating impurities and pressing it through massive filters.

The upgraded building will process sugar faster and more efficiently,significantly reducing the amount of power and water

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Finding5

consumed bythe plant

“Due tothe age of our site, we have current bottlenecks,”Rob Gentilcore, refineryvice president and general manager,said. “A big bottleneckhere is in filtration.”Construction on thenew buildingisalready underway,withcompletion of the first phase expected in 2028.

Aresilient refinery

The massive refineryhas been afixture of the St. Bernard Parish landscape since it opened in 1909 on 70 acres alongthe Mississippi River that had previously beenthe site of plantations.

The refinerychanged handsin1988whenthe Domino brandand its parentcompany’s U.S. operations were acquired by the British company Tate &Lyle. It returned to American ownership in 2001 with the formation of ASRGroup, ajointventure betweenFlorida Crystals Corporation and theSugar CaneGrowers Cooperative of Florida.

Sincethen, the planthas survived several significant disruptions, from adeadly explosion in 1965 that was soon followed byHurricane Betsy,tolost market share fromsodaproducers’shift to high fructose corn syrup in the 1980s, to the devastationofits facility and equipment following Hurricane Katrina.

Today,the Chalmette refinery,one of justtwo that makes Domino-branded items, canproduce about6 millionpoundsofsugarevery day,with 32 production linesturning out 70 different types of sugar products. Economic sweeteners

Thestate of Louisiana gave ASR Group a“competitiveincentives package”to encouragethe company to modernize therefinery,according toLouisiana Eco-

The auditors repeateda finding from 2022, questioning whether more than$5.8 million from two city sales taxesdedicatedtocapital projects in thecity of Lafayette was improperly used to fund projects outside the city duringthe Guillory administration.

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involved in young people’s lives, noting that while social media can show positive content, it can also

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“I’m asking that the School Board in Lafayette please, please allow this man to be principal again,” Hatch said in avideo posted to Facebook. “This man had no ill will towards anything.” Hatch claims in the video that he did not rap during thevisitand Rollinsasked him to tell the students “some positive words.”

“This man had nothing but great intentions for them students,” Hatch said. Hatch was in Lafayette to promote Boosie Bash, an annual concert, which will be held at the Cajundome

nomic Development.

That package included a10-year,80% property tax abatement through the IndustrialTax Exemption Program for new buildings, as well as reimbursement for money spent on wages through theQuality Jobs Program

Accordingtothe company’sapplicationfor the payroll reimbursement program,which sunset last summer,the 15 newjobs created by theexpansion will have an averageannual wage of $73,000.

St.Bernard Parish President LouisPomes,who signedoff on the incentive packagenegotiated by the state economicdevelopment agency,said the refinery expansionwill bring significant economic benefits to the area.

“More jobs, moremoney spent in the parish, with the inventory taxes and allofthatthatcomes in,” Pomes said. “Iteventually can help us andmaybe we can roll back on some of our taxes.”

Thecompany’s commitment of more thanthree quarters of abillion dollars to itsLouisiana refineryfollows ASRGroup’smove to consolidateits U.S. sugar refinery operations. The Chalmette refineryhas fewer production constraints thanthe Baltimore facility, allowing it to handle overflow production andmakingitstrategically critical to the company’s eastern operations, according to Gentilcore, theplant general manager Apart from its Domino refineriesinMaryland and Louisiana, ASRGroupowns and operates threeother sugarrefineriesinNorth America —inthe San Francisco BayArea, Toronto and Veracruz, Mexico —as well as sugarcanefarms and sugarmills in Mexico and Belize.

Specifically,city salestax revenue was spent on acontroversial St. Martin Parish spoilbankremoval project, the Homewood/Coulee Ile des Cannes detention pond projects, acomprehensive stormwater plan for the parishand a$402,723 legal settlement to people who leased property acquired forthe Homewood/Coulee Ile des Cannes detention ponds

expose youth to harmful and violent content. They emphasized the importance of being present and offeringguidance.

Officials added that there is ashared responsibility to reachyoung people, encouragethem andlift them

next week with alineupof special guest appearances. The bash has been heldin Baton Rouge,the rapper’s hometown, since itsinception in 2017. Rollins was appointed principalofNorthside High in June 2024. He has more than 25 years of experience in education and holds abachelor’sdegree from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and amaster’sdegree in administration and supervision from Southern University Priortohis role at Northside, Rollinsserved as principal of LeRosen Preparatory School.His career also includesteachingphysical science, health, physical education,ACT prep and world geography, accord-

Elaine Hoisington

Funeral serviceswillbe held at 11:00 am Saturday, May 9, 2026, at Geesey-FergusonFuneral Home Chapel in Crowleyfor Minnie Elaine Hoisington Wright, 93, who passed away May 4, 2026, at the AcadianatSouthwind ChristyBrammer willbe officiating forthe services The family is requesting visiting hourstobeheld Friday from6:00 pm to 8:00 pm and Saturdayfrom 9:00 am to thetime of service at Geesey-Ferguson Funeral HomeinCrowley.Interment willbeinWoodlawn Cemetery. Minnie Elaine HoisingtonWright,born January6, 1933, in Davenport, Iowa, liveda vibrant and creative life defined by her devotion to family,education, thearts, and her community. She graduated from BatonRouge HighSchool in 1951 and went on to attend Louisiana StateUniversity, where she earnedher bachelor's degree in education. During her time at LSU, Minnie was an active member of the Tri Delta Sorority and enjoyed a wide range of activities, including ballet and even power lifting.Itwas also at LSUthatshe met her belovedhusband, S.L. Wright,III,who was a member of the Sigma Nu Fraternity. Together, they shared alifelong love of LSUfootball. Elaine dedicatedherself to educationand community service, including many years teaching SundayschoolatFirst United Methodist Church in Crowley, where she inspired generations of youngpeoplewith her passion and faith. She broke barriersas thefirst female president of theCrowley High School Athletic Booster Club and even served as apee wee football referee—roles that reflected bothher pioneering spirit and her love of sports In 1975, Minnie was honored as Mardi GrasQueen forthe Crowley Town Club Krewe of theTownRevelers, alongsideKingCimmerXX, T. Barrett Harrington, an occasionthatreflected her vibrant presence in the community. Adeeplycreativesoul, Elaine had alifelong love

for thearts. Shewas an accomplished artist and sculptor, winningawards for herwork, andalso expressed hercreativity through music,enjoying playing thepiano;continuinga musical legacyfrom herfather,who wrote "TumblingTumbleweeds." Herartistictalents extended to thestage as well:she wasa founding memberof theAcadian Playersand participated in the Abbey Players, whereshe took on leading roles, designed sets, crafted props, and illustratedplaybills. Shealso illustratedthe widely distributed "PoorMan's Rice Cookbook."

Elaine foundjoy in life's simple pleasures like fishing, cooking, gardening, andspending time with herbeloved dogs, especiallyher cherished SpringerSpaniel,Mookie Shewas alifelong, voraciousreader,withshelves full of books Shewill be remembered for hercreativity, herpioneeringspirit,her devotion to hercommunity and faith, andthe warmth and joyshe brought to all who knew her.

Sheissurvivedbyfour children, Diane Elaine Wright Hoffpauer; Salmon Lusk "Sam" Wright,IVand hiswife Ellen, Robert "Lee" Wright andhis wife Teresa, andWilliam JebStuart Wright;eight grandchildren,NicholasOtto Hoffpauer andhis wife Shea, Salmon Lusk "Sloan" Wright,V andhis wife Julianne, JourdanFrances Wright,Meryl Therese Wright,Ashley Nichole Davis andher husband Mat, Zachary Taylor Wright,Sarah Elizabeth Wright andher fiancé Greg Caballero,and Samantha Leeann Wright andher fiancé Everett Kidwell;and twohalf-sisters, Patricia

Gould,and Kathy Jo Sell Elaine is preceded in death by herhusband, Salmon Lusk "S.L." Wright, III;her parents,LesterHenry andLillie Stokes Hoisington;and half-brother, Richard Jackson Pallbearers will be Sam Wright,Lee Wright,Jeb Wright,Jacob Solomon, Nicholas Hoffpauer, and ZacharyWright. Thefamilywould like to acknowledgethe following people for theirextraordinary care andsupport of Elaine:Mrs. Mona Dupuis, herlongtime friendand primary caregiver. Mr. JacobSolomon hertrusted friendand reliable handyman. Dr.NancyWalker her primary physician.The staff of Acadian Southwind whotook such goodcare of Elaine Memorial contributions may be made in hername to thecharityororganization of yourchoice. Arrangements have been entrusted to GeeseyFerguson FuneralHome of Crowley.

up, andmostimportantly, show them love.

“This is ahurt that touches all of us,” it said. “We must be present,wemust guide them,and we must show them abetter way.”

The investigation is ongoing.

ing to aschool system news release.

He has additionally held assistant principal positions at the W.D. and Mary Baker Smith Career Center CarencroHighSchool and Lafayette High School, and served as an itinerant assistant principal at Acadiana High School.

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‘Special’ mission

BY KEVIN FOOTE

Staff writer

For a team that failed to reach the upper division of the Sun Belt softball race through the season and is a No. 8 seed in the Sun Belt Tournament, the UL Ragin’ Cajuns got some good news on the All-Sun Belt team.

Sophomore catcher Kennedy Marceaux was named he first-team catcher and freshman Haley Hart was voted as the Freshman of the Year in the league. Hart also joined third baseman Brooke Otto and shortstop Mia Liscano as second-team members on the All-Sun Belt squad

Now the Cajuns are looking for team accomplishments by making a run at the Sun Belt championship beginning when the Ca-

“We’re really excited. This is what you play for all season. It’s the most wonderful time of the year without a doubt And we get to do it at Lamson Park, which is special.”

ALySON HABETZ, UL coach

juns take on No. 9 Troy at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Lamson Park, where the entire tournament is being held.

“We’re really excited,” coach Alyson

Habetz said. “This is what you play for all season. It’s the most wonderful time of the year without a doubt. And we get to do it at Lamson Park, which is special.”

The Cajuns (28-25) won every home league series this season and lost every series on the road. Included in that home schedule was a 2-1 mark against the Trojans from April 2-4.

Troy won the first game 5-4 and the Cajuns won the middle game 11-7. UL squeaked out the rubber game 5-4 in eight innings.

The Troy defense faltered throughout the series, allowing eight unearned runs in the second game. No Troy pitcher was particularly

Home courting

LSU, Georgia to face off with aspirations to host NCAA regional

BY JIM KLEINPETER Contributing writer

LSU softball and Georgia go head to head in the SEC Tournament on Wednesday at John Cropp Stadium in Lexington, Kentucky, but advancement might not be the only thing on the line.

The two teams are similarly positioned with the NCAA Tournament looming, and this game could wind up as somewhat of a tiebreaker on Selection Sunday No 18 LSU (37-16, 13-11 SEC) finished eighth in the conference standings, and No. 17 Georgia (36-17, 12-12) finished ninth. They are in the second tier of teams fighting to host a regional LSU has a No 11 RPI with a No. 8 strength of schedule, and Georgia is No. 15 in RPI with a No. 5 strength of schedule. LSU has 11 Quad 1 wins and Georgia has 10.

“We have a strong resume,” LSU coach Beth Torina said. “We’ve done a good job of winning all the games we should win without any bad losses. We’ve played a really tough schedule.

“The best thing is to not get ahead of yourself; one pitch at a time. Each game is valuable. Any one win can make a difference.” The Tigers started the season 1-5 in SEC play but closed strong with a 7-2 mark to eke above .500 in SEC play for the first time this season last weekend with a sweep of Auburn. Meanwhile Georgia was taking two of three from No. 5 Florida at the end of a murderous schedule that included Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Texas A&M.

“They are an incredibly talented team,” Torina said of Georgia. “They played a tough, tough schedule, and are probably better

ä See LSU, page 3C

BY MATTHEW PARAS Staff writer

After the New England Patriots released him in March, defensive end Anfernee Jennings heard interest from the Saints.

When mulling over the next stop of his career, Jennings looked at how the Saints closed the season strong, how their draft further cemented the idea this was a franchise on the upswing and how there would be an opportunity to earn playing time

He even saw parallels to his former team.

“We got a chance to be really good,” Jennings said Last year Jennings was part of a Patriots squad that had a rocketlike ascension to get back to being one of the NFL’s elite. With quarterback Drake Maye entering his second year, and the Patriots hiring veteran coach Mike Vrabel, New England experienced a worst-to-first turnaround in the AFC East, went 14-3 and made the Super Bowl before falling short in a lopsided loss to the Seattle Seahawks.

The turnaround was quite an experience for Jennings, a 2020 third-rounder whose first season with the Patriots coincided with Tom Brady’s departure. And after signing with the Saints on a one-year contract last week, he hasn’t shied away from comparisons that his new team could be on the same path.

The Saints might not have hired a new coach, but they do have a second-year quarterback in Tyler Shough who showed enough promise as a rookie that it is tempting to wonder whether he can make a Maye-like jump. Jennings also knows that talking about the possibil-

ity can get the Saints only so far

“Last year, nobody gave us a chance to be where we were, where we ended up at the end of the season,” Jennings said. “But

BY TOYLOY BROWN III Staff writer

Will Wade has heard the jokes about LSU having only one player on the roster almost a month after the transfer portal window opened.

“Everybody thinks I can’t count right now, we only got one guy on the roster,” the new LSU coach said on the “Tingle & Co.” podcast. “I said, ‘I know I’m from Tennessee, but I’m not that dumb. I can count to five.’ ” Wade spoke publicly for the first time since his March 30 introductory news conference on a pair of podcasts released Tuesday He answered questions about his team, which has Kentucky transfer Mo Dioubate as the lone player publicly committed.

While he’s the only player committed, there are several players on the team, Wade said on CBS Sports’ “Inside College Basketball Now” podcast.

“Low volume in terms of what you guys know,” Wade said. “We got seven or eight guys, so we’re not too worried. We’ve got some good guys. Look, for a bunch of reasons, we’re not announcing things.”

Wade said the plan is to get more from the international player market. A couple of reasons why some of those players haven’t been announced are because they are competing in the playoffs or “negotiating” with their current teams, Wade said. He also cited the reported new NCAA five-year eligibility rule that might be approved This change will give athletes five years of eligibility starting at the earliest of two dates: when a player turns 19 or graduates from high school.

“This will be the last year some of those guys will be eligible, so we’re gonna lean a little heavier on the international route,” Wade said. “Those kids have a lot of experience There’s just some natural things that they’ve learned over there that really help in college basketball and can translate to us in college basketball.”

Wade also said he has a couple of players in the transfer portal

4p.m.

4p.m.

6p.m.

8:30 p.m.Minnesota at SanAntonio ESPN NHL

6p.m.Montreal at Buffalo TNT

8:30 p.m.AnaheimatVegas TNT MEN’S SOCCER

2p.m.ParisSaint-Germain at Munich CBS

6:30 p.m.Calgary at CF Montreal CBS

8:30 p.m.LAFCatDeportivoToluca FC FS1

WOMEN’S SOCCER

9p.m.Houston at Utah CBSSN

6:10 p.m. PhiladelphiaatNew york

PGATour’s schedule toopacked

LIV Golf had aseemingly endless supply of Saudi money that suddenly is coming to an end. Overlooked is another of its assets —this one with no price tag —the PGA Tour would love to have.

Ablank canvas.

Even as LIVGolfCEO Scott

O’Neil was trying to present hope for afuture without the financial muscle of Saudi Arabia’ssovereign wealth fund, the PGA Tour wasmoving from one signature event to anotheronthe short road to Aronimink for the PGA Championship.

It’saschedule that doesn’tmake sense.

Astros losecatcherDiaz due to left oblique strain

HOUSTON Houston catcher Yainer Diazwas placed on the 10-day injuredlist with aleftoblique strain Tuesday

Diaz was injured in batting practice Monday and manager Joe Espada didn’tprovide aspecific timeline for his injury but said he’d be out for“awhile.”

The Astros selected the contract of catcher CésarSalazar from Triple-A Sugar Land on Monday afterDiazwas injured. He’llserve as the team’s backup until Diaz is healthy with veteran Christian Vázquez stepping in as the starter

“Part of me wondershow much of an appetite there is for20major tournaments,” MattKuchar said late last year,after having spent afew hours with Rolapp trying to see the vision.

Thatled to another question.

“I still scratch my head at what happened to the World Golf Championships,” Kuchar said. “They hada greatfield—certainly had some obscure names, but for the most part the top 40 or 50 guys in the world played. Tigerwon half of them, so clearly they weresuccessful from aTVstandpoint.

“Why do we think someother versionwillwork?” he said. “I don’t know.”

From the first major at the Masters through the second major at the PGA Championship, the top players face three $20million signature events and two majors over six weeks. That followed another brutal stretch of three $20 million events and The Players Championship over five weeks on both sides of the country

What’sthe solution? The Future Competition Committee is working on it, and no doubt has found it difficult to blow up and rebuild a model in placefor 100 years with tweaks along the way The idea was to get the best players competing againsteach other more often, and not many would be opposed to aconcept like that. It was four years ago when 23 players met privately in Delaware to rally around the tour and against LIV Golf (three of them later defected to LIV).

From that emerged a 2023 schedulewhere the top players committed to a20-event schedule in which they would compete against each other at least 17 times. Rory McIlroy skipped two of them.

And McIlroy already has missed twosignature events this year after winning another Masters. Four other players from the top15inthe world didn’tenter the Cadillac Championship last week at Doral. World No. 1Scottie Scheffler isn’tplaying this week at Quail Hollow because he faces as many as four in arow —two of them home events in the Dallas area —startingwith the PGA

ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO By JONFERREy CharlSchwartzel,ofSouthernGuardsGC, is introduced at the Lion’s Denatthe 17th tee during the final round of LIV Golf South Africa at The Club at SteynCity on March 22 in Midrand,South Africa.

Championship. Brian Rolapp, the PGA Tour CEO who appointed Tiger Woods to lead thecompetition committee,was awareofthis crunch when it was announced last August

“How do you actually drive a competitive schedule where every event matters, thatisconnected to apostseason, but do it in away wherethe best golfers can gettogether and actually perform well?” Rolapp saidatthe Tour Championship. “I think that’sall an open question, andthose are the things we’re going to look at with an open mind.”

Butit’snot an open-and-shut case, not with so much history behind the PGATour.History is one of sport’sgreatest assets untilit becomes ahurdle when trying to effectively start over Rolapp shed some light on the committee’sprogress in March when he mentioned two tracks

—one for theelite playing the big-money events on notable golf courses, the other aproving ground of other tournaments on the schedule. The trickwas finding the ladder to getfrom one to the other.But it still doesn’t solve the crunch that playersare facing and when to playthem.

The simple part forthe tour wassinking twoeventsinHawaii. Wisconsin-based Sentry,the titlesponsor at Kapalua, would seem to be the right fit forTorrey Pines. Thatgivesthe West Coast Torrey Pines, Pebble Beach and Riviera,withthe “GreatestShow on Grass” (Phoenix) in the mix.

Florida now has five tournaments. March has four weeks. And perhaps the biggest questiontowhich thereare more opinions than answers: What’s the right amount of tournaments? How often should all thebest be on thesame golf course?

The last year for afull slate of WGCs was the year before LIV launched. Sponsorship issues and the COVID-19 pandemic played a bigpart.

But this is about reinventing thewheel, andthere’s sure to be plenty of bumps in the road.

That’swhere LIV Golf and its first leader,Greg Norman,could have usedamulligan. Theshotgun start and 54-hole competition. Theteam concept (remember the Niblicks and Punch among the early names?). Golf,but louder maybe too loud.

LIV had ablank canvasand came up with paint by numbers.

O’Neilisleft to create abusiness plantotakeits teams to potential buyers, which probably should have beendonelongago when it was flush with cash in abid to pattern itself after the popular and veryglobal Formula 1series.

Now the future is in serious doubt.A lot of obits have been written the past few weeks. Media thatlargely ignored LIV Golf areall over Trump National in Virginia, at leastuntil the competition starts on Thursday Norman boasted on the day that LIV announced the field for its first event, “Free agency has finally cometogolf.” He might have been ahead of histime. Because if LIVGolfcan’tsurvive without Saudi money,orcan’tfind enough investors, therewillbeplenty of freeagents.

Meanwhile, Rolapp hasanews conference the week after the U.S. Open for an update on the newcompetitionmodel the PGA Tour is trying to create. There’sa lotofmoving parts. Alot of paint.

The 27-year-old Diazishitting .248 with two home runs and 14 RBIsin26games this season. In othermoves on Tuesday,the Astros recalled right-hander Jason Alexander and outfielder Zach Dezenzo from Sugar Land.

WNBA all-time leading rebounder Charles is retiring

NEW YORK Tina Charles, the WNBA’s all-time leading rebounder,is retiring from the league, the eighttimeAll-Star announced Tuesday on social media.

Charles, who had 4,262 rebounds in hercareer,also finished as the league’s No. 2all-time scorer behind Diana Taurasi. The 15-year veteranscored8,396 points in the regular season.

“Today,I officially announce my retirement from basketball. Fifteen years at the professional level and alifetime of love forthis game,” Charles wrote in her post.

Charles was theNo. 1pickby the Connecticut Sunin2010 after helping the UConn Huskies win consecutive NCAA championships in 2009 and2010. Shewas theAP Player of the Year in 2010.

Seahawks, veteran Fowler workingon1-year deal

The reigning Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks and veteran edge rusherDante Fowler are working on aone-year deal worth up to $5 million,aperson with knowledge of the deal told The Associated PressonTuesday

Theperson spoke to the AP on condition of anonymitybecause the contract hasn’tbeen finalized. Fowler,31, played forthe Dallas Cowboys last year and had three sacks in 17 games, starting in 11 of those Fowler should help Seattlereplace edge rusherBoyeMafe, who signed athree-year,$60 million deal with the CincinnatiBengals in free agency.Mafe had20sacksinfour seasons for Seattle.

Fowler wasthe No. 3pickby Jacksonville in the 2015 NFL Draft.

Giants HOF LB Taylor released from hospital

BY BEN NUCKOLDS AP sportswriter

STERLING, Va.— Jon Rahm has resolved his financial dispute with the European tour, amove that potentiallygives him aplace to compete in 2027 and beyond withLIV Golf facinganuncertain future Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton took questions Tuesday at LIV Golf Virginiaafter LIVCEO Scott O’Neil spoke to reportersabout his efforts to court investors for aleague that is losing its chief financial backer,Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, at the end of the season. Both players declined to speculate on their futureand noted that they remain under contract with LIV for years to come.

“As of right now Ihave several years on my contract left, and I’m pretty sure they did apretty good job when they drafted that, so I don’tsee many ways out,” Rahm said. Asked whether Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund had committed to honoring contracts beyond 2026, O’Neil said,“Idon’t even know how to think aboutanswering.”

The Saudishave spent $5 billion on LIV Golf over five years without achieving profitability,including$1billion on player contracts Players compete for $30 million purses at each event on the LIV schedule, an amount that couldbe reduced next year without Saudi funding.

ThePGA Tour doesnot allow players to compete on both circuits. However, LIVplayers have been welcomed back to the European tour after paying fines for playing in conflictingevents.

Rahm refused to paythe fines andthe resulting standoff put at risk hisparticipation in next year’sRyder Cup at Adare Manor in Ireland.

“There is nolonger astandoff. We were abletoreachanagreement. There were some concessions on both sides, and Ioffered some, they extended an olive branch,” Rahmsaid. “So that will not be astress anymore.”

Rahm said he planstoplay European tour events this fall, including the Spanish Open, unless family considerations get in the way He and wife Kelleyare expecting their fourth child.

The two-time major champion hasplayed only six European tour events since joiningLIV in late 2023. LIV hasnoeventsonits schedulebetween the U.S. Open and the British Open, andRahm’s settlement wouldallow himto play the Scottish Open, which is co-sanctioned by the PGATour, theweek before the year’sfinal major.

Speaking in Spanishatthe end of hisavailability, Rahm said he knew there was risk in coming to LIV andcomparedhis situation to asoccer team knowingits coach wasleavingatthe end of the season.

“You know you have to play,but

thereisambiguity becausemaybe you are not going to follow the same system,” Rahm said before making areference to PIFgovernor Yasir Al-Rumayyan, known as “His Excellency,” who has stepped down as LIV’schairman.

“It was asurprise for everyone. We didn’texpect it, after the support thatHis Excellency hasgiven us.”

O’Neil makesapitch forLIV

O’Neil took questions from aLIV media official for 28 minutes inside the tennis building at Trump National Golf Club outside Washington beforeanswering report-

ers’ questions for17minutes. Behindhim was ascreen with thenames of six sponsors, four of which are ownedorbacked by the PIF: Maaden, Riyadh Air,Roshn Group and Aramco.

O’Neil mentioned sponsorships, ticket sales, television contracts andthe league’sglobal footprintas reasons for optimism that it could secure funding. The league plans to take its 13 franchises to market, andO’Neil said those teams would be offered to potential buyerswith players in place.

Rahm acknowledged that players might have to acceptless money to keepthe league going.

NEW YORK New York Giants Hall of Fame linebacker Lawrence Taylorwas discharged recentlyfrom the hospital following astint for a stomach-relatedissue,his attorney said Tuesday Mark Eiglarsh said in an email to The Associated Press that Taylor is returning hometoFlorida after being hospitalized in Morristown, NewJersey,since April 20.

“He is grateful to now be on the road to recovery and hopes to be back on the golf course soon,” Eiglarsh said, adding that the67-year-old expressed appreciation to the staffatMorristown Medical Center Taylor spent his entire 13-season NFLcareer with the Giants from 1981-93 and helped them win the Super Bowltwice.

Source: Giantsare signing defensive tackle Reader

NEW YORK The NewYork Giants are signing defensive tackle D.J. Reader to atwo-year contract worth $12.5million, according to a person familiar with the move. Reader,who turns 32 on July 1, fills the void left by trading Dexter Lawrence to Cincinnati prior to the draftlastmonth.The Giants hosted Reader fora workoutonApril 13 while there was uncertainty about Lawrence’sfuture with the team. He startedall 17 games forthe Detroit Lions last seasonand made 28 tackles. In 137games with the Texans, Bengals and Lions since Houston pickedhim in the fifth round of the 2016 draft,Reader has 328 tackles and 12 ½ sacks. Reader is part of arebuilt defense fornew coach JohnHarbaugh, after theunit ranked 30th out of 32 teams last season.

UL

CAJUNS

Continued from page1C

effective, and the UL pitchers didn’texactly dominate, either

After giving up four runsinfive innings in the opener,Sage Hoover limited Troy to two runs and seven hits in fiveinnings in the third game. Julianne Tipton had two productive outingsout of the bullpen,including giving up just one run in 32/3 relief innings in the middle game.

With LexieDelbrey throwing 51/3 innings in the Cajuns’ 2-1 winatSouth Alabama on Saturday,the UL coaching staff mayhave more options entering the tournament.

“Wegot more arms contributing with Lexie and Julianne, which is very refreshing,” Habetz said. “Especially with Lexie, seeing her throwstrikes andattackthe hitters. We haven’tseen that from her pretty much the entire season.”

The winner will advance to meet top-seeded UL-Monroe at 4p.m. Thursday

“I know Troy’sgoing to compete,” Habetz said. “They have good pitchers in the circle. We’regoing to have to make adjustmentsoffen-

Continued from page 1C

than their record shows. They’ve got two good arms,adeepoffense, aton of seniorswho have been around the block. We’ve gotour workcut outfor us.” Georgia boasts atough lefty-righty pitching duo. Junior left-handerRandi Roelling (16-5, 3.01 ERA) is the ace with 10 complete games and 120 strikeouts in 1252/3 innings pitched. Addisen Fisher is 10-5 with a2.84 ERA.

Catcher Sarah Gordonis batting.451with10homers and 39 RBIs, while designated player Tyler Ellison is batting .390 with ateambest 42 RBIs. Torina has to like her team’s chancesas it has shown marked improvement downthe stretch,

Continued from page1C

enteringhis seventh season, he’shad time to reflect on ajourney that almost didn’tget started because of asignificant leg injury in 2017 in which he damaged an artery anddeveloped a blood clot.Inthe NFL, Jennings’scareerhas taken its

atLamson Park, Lafayette Wednesday’s games No. 7Georgia Southern vs.No. 10 Coastal Carolina, 4p.m. No. 8ULvs. No. 9Troy, 7p.m. Thursday’s games No. 3Texas State vs.No. 6James Madison, 10 a.m. No. 2Marshall vs.Game 1winner,1 p.m. No. 1UL-Monroe vs.Game 2winner,4 p.m. No. 4Southern Miss vs.No. 5South Alabama Friday’s games Game 3winner vs.Game 4winner,3 p.m. Game 5winner vs.Game 6winner,6 p.m. Saturday’s game Championship game, 1:30 p.m.

sively andplay good defense.”

The two teams have similar batting lines. Troy is hitting .319 with 281runs, 35 homers and 101 stolen bases. UL is batting .300 with 284 runs, 45 homers and 49 steals

TheTrojans are led by Makaley Boswell (.387, 7HRs, 46 RBIs), Megan Loftis(.276,9RBIs, 13 SBs) and Presley Ivey (.342, 19 RBIs).

“Offensively, they’re going to swingthe bats, and. there’sa couple of them in the lineup that we really struggle with,”Habetzsaid.

“Hopefully,we’ll puta lot of runs on theboard.Wejust have to compete every pitch.”

Hart, who drove in two runs in

especially on offense. Jalia Lassiter was named SEC Player of the Week after the sweep ofOle Miss. She hadnine hits in four games and batted .600 with three doubles anda homer. LSU outscored its opponents 51-2 and had 56 hits.

The Tigers have 12 more home runs than in 2025and eight more extra-base hits.

“There’sbeen aton of growththroughout the year (offensively),” Torina said.“That’swhat we’re most proud of. If you look at our power numbers, theyare up.”

Thepitching also has solidified with theemergence of PaytnMonticelli to go withJayden Heavener and Cece Cellura. Monticelli has won her last fivedecisionswhile Heavener bouncedback from some rough outings with ashutout of Auburn on Saturday

“Wealways thought

own twistsand turns. He’s been abackup who became astarter,and then abackup again.Throw in another injury that cost himall of 2021. Butthat range of experience is why Jenningsbelieves he can contributeto theSaints. He wasn’t fazed, forinstance, when the Patriotswent back to relying on him in the playoffs once edge rusher Harold Landry went

thefirstwin over Troy,earned top freshman honors after hitting .369 with nine homers, 39 RBIsand six steals as bothanoutfielder and second baseman for UL.

“Haley just knows how to win,” Habetz said.“She’sbeen apartof championship teams.She’s so much fun to watch in those moments, becausethe stage is nevertoo big for us. Thebiggerthe moment, the better Ithink she performs.

“I’mlooking forward to watching her perform in these conditions because Ithink she’sgoing to rise to theoccasion.”

Otto, who hit atwo-run homerin the opener of the Troy series, finished theregular season hitting.343 with 11 homers and 46 RBIs

Liscano, whowas 2for 2with a double andtwo RBIs in the middle game, leads the Cajuns at .401 with 18 RBIs and 15 steals. Marceaux is batting .331 with fivehomers, 36 RBIs and eight steals.

“I feel like there’s afreedom in playing in the postseason, and Ithink there’s afreedom in being the eighth seed and having to play Wednesday,” Habetzsaid. “I think it’sabout proving everybody wrong, and saying, ‘OK, when’s the realRagin’Cajuns softballteamgo-

First team PMadisonAzua, TexasState PRyley Harrison, South Alabama PAshanti McDade,ULM CKennedy Marceaux,UL 1B Aiyana Coleman, TexasState 1B GeorgiaHood, Coastal Carolina 2B Morgan Brown, ULM 2B Makayla McClain, App State 3B Sydni Burko, Marshall SS KendraLewis, JamesMadison OF

2B Haley Hart, UL 3B DelaneyKeith, Coastal Carolina 3B BrookeOtto, UL SS Grace Barrett, App State SS Mia Liscano, UL OF AvaBlake,Marshall OF Meagan Brown, ULM OF Megan Loftis, Troy OF Harley Vestal,Texas State OF McKenzie Walker,Georgia State DP Ella Cunningham, Troy

ing to step up?’I just think there’sa freedom in that.”

Email KevinFoote at kfoote@ theadvocate.com.

SECTOURNAMENT

Tuesday’s first round No. 14 Auburn6,No. 11 Missouri2 No. 10 Mississippi State 4, No. 15 Kentucky 3 No. 13 Ole Miss 2, No. 12 South Carolina0 Wednesday’s first round Game 4: No. 6Texas A&M vs.Auburn, 11 a.m., SECNetwork Game 5: No. 7Arkansas vs.No. 10 Mississippi State, 35 mins following Game 4, SECNetwork Game 6: No. 5Tennessee vs.No. 13 Ole Miss, 35 mins following Game 5, SECNetwork Game 7: No. 8LSU vs.No. 9Georgia 35 mins following Game 6, SEC Network Thursday’s quarterfinals Game 8: No. 3Florida vs.winnerof Game 4, 11 a.m., SECNetwork Game 9: No. 2Alabama vs.winner of Game 5,

and shared another reason whyother names haven’t been released.

“Someofthese guys we’re filing waivers for and we need to let the waiver process take place,” he said. “So there’salot of other things thatare going on that, you know,not necessarily need to be out in the public all the time.” Wade also discussed a “mistake” he learned last season while coaching NC State was not to build depth with toomany expensive players.

“(We) got 11 guys and had alot of depth,” Wade said. “Depth is really important for practice. It’snot as important forgameswhen you’re onlyplaying seven or eight guys, nine max. And so we had somedead money on the roster

“So one thing I’m focusing on here is we’re really going to pay seven or eight guys at LSU this year.We’ll fillout the back half of the roster with some guys who could help us in apinch. But we want to put our resources into those main guys.” Of the eight or nine rotation players whomeWade expects to rely on, he said LSU has “all but one spot filled.” He said that rushing to make player decisions is how you make mistakes, and that this year’sportal classwasn’tasstrong as 2025.

“Only 9.4% of theplayers who went in the portal are good enough to play for LSU,” Wade said.

“I’m not talking about good enough to start, I’m talking about good enough just to play,beinthe rotation.”

Wade spoke highly of the 6-foot-7 forward Dioubate, who played two years at Alabama before his junior year at Kentucky,where he averaged 8.8 points and 5.5 rebounds in 21.6 minutes per game.

“He’sjust awinner,” Wade told Rothstein. “You look at the comments from coach (Nate) Oates of Alabama, how they missed him, and you look at the comments during the season from coach (Mark) Pope at Kentucky,and just the mentality that he brings. He’s a hard-playing guy.Hecan play multiple positions.

“He’ssomebody that’sgoing to help lay the foundation for your program,be acornerstone of your program.”

He said that it’snot important how much people like his team during the offseason. Hisfocus is to have the “best seven, eight guys that we can possibly assemble from all around the world by August,” Wade said.

When asked where he thinks his team can finishifeverythingplaysout the way he expects, Wade didn’tset abar of just making the NCAA Tournament.

“Ourroster finishes out howIneedto, andeverybody’s eligible andeverybody goes out, we’ll have a top-15 team in the country,” Wade said.

they woulddosome good things,” Torina said of her pitching staff.

“The wayweused them may be alittle different

down with an injury. Jennings had been used to being afull-time starterfor thetwo seasons prior,hesaid And as apro, Jennings has developed into astout run defender —one who could help improve aSaints defense thatallowed the 14th-most rushing yards last year

“I feel like I’mversatile, physical (and) adisciplined player,” he said.

from what we thought. They allbring something different to the table. In combination, they’ve been tough.”

In New Orleans, Jennings will have to earnhis role. He joined an edge rusher room thatalso recently added former Las Vegas Raiders firstrounder Tyree Wilson and could still bring back Cam Jordan. Jennings’ contract according to Over The Cap, containedonly$187,500 in guarantees, making it relatively easy for the Saintsto move on if he doesn’t secure a53-man roster spot.

But if he sticks around, he’ll try to help the Saints make the same leap he just experienced in NewEngland.

“It’saprocess, man,” Jennings said.“Youdon’t get to the Super Bowl by what you do in the beginning of the season or anything like that.”

EmailMatthew Paras at matt.paras@theadvocate.

Team Standings: Sacred Heart-NO +13,Newman +50, St. Mary’s+60, Episcopal +61, Ursuline +84, St. Frederick +99, Elton +108, Loyola Prep +111, Christ Episcopal +154. Individual Leaderboard: Jade Neves, Sacred HeartNO 144; Ashley Biehl, Ursuline+16;Abby Hui, Newman +17; Lily Osbon, Evangel +19; Madeline Rudolph, SacredHeart-NO +20; Emery Kane, SacredHeart-NO +23; Marcella Rabalais, Episcopal +26; Lacey Boyd,St. Mary’s+30; Lilly Boyd,St. Mary’s +30; Ann Schonberg, Newman +33. Odds

at NEW YORK 7½ (215½) Philadelphia at SANANTONIO 9½

Charles +131, Brusly +131, North DeSoto +166,Iowa+182. Individual Leaderboard: Spencer Hagan,Teurlings 148;Kye Hanks, St. Louis 149; KaineStevens, North Vermilion 155; Fulton Pigeon,Holy Cross 155;Mason Renfrow,Tioga156; Brody Bourgoyne, Brusly 156; LukeLeBeouf, St. Louis 157;Brandon Fuselier,Holy Cross 157;Michael Parmley,DeRidder161; Brooks Monica, St. Charles 161. Other notable locals: Brewer Cain, Teurlings164; Avery Fortier, Teurlings164; Caleb Gonzales, Teurlings 165; Jaxon Owen, Teurlings 177. Division III Boys At The Wetlands, Lafayette Team Standings: Ascension Episcopal +36, Dunham +49, Episcopal +54, Loyola Prep +56, CountryDay +69, NotreDame +95, Calvary Baptist +125, Caldwell Parish +171. Individual Leaderboard: Noah Chauvin,Ascension Episcopal 140; Meyer Schopp,Catholic-NI 146;Reed Winkler, Loyola Prep 146; Owen LeJeune, Dunham 146; Jack Carter, Parkview 148;Austin Ray, Episcopal 150; Cooper Adams, Houma Christian 151; KruzMartin, Westlake151; EzraEberts, Ouachita Christian 151; Pearch Weinstein, Country Day151. Other notable locals: Hayden Amy, Ascension Episcopal 154; Joseph Wilson, Ascension Episcopal 158; Jude Duplechin, NotreDame 159; Carter Bourque, AscensionEpiscopal 160; Ty Savant, NotreDame 164; Clint Meche, NotreDame 172; Parker Roberts,Ascension Episcopal 172. Division IV Boys At Farm D’Allie, Carencro Team Standings: Cedar Creek +56,Sacred HeartVP +98, Glenbrook +100, Central Catholic +107, Castor+113, Vermilion Catholic +121, Catholic-PC +162, Choudrant +189. Individual Leaderboard: Ivan Popp, Berchman’s 137; Alex Roebuck, Cedar Creek 148; Luke Wainwright, GrandLake149;Landon Lotz First Baptist 152; Jase Martin, Cedar Creek 155; Tripp Kordisch,ESA 156; Pierce Regard, Avoyelles Charter 159; George Pullin, Cedar Creek 163; Levi Joyner,Castor 163; Louie Collins, Glenbrook 164; Hayden Patin, Vermilion Catholic 165. Other notable locals: Sawyer Stover, Vermilion Catholic 168; Thomas Buckless,Vermilion Catholic 179; Cohen Hebert, Vermilion Catholic 185; Michael Mollere, Vermilion Catholic 199. Division IGirls At LeTriomphe, Broussard Team standings: Southside +28; Barbe +36; St. Joseph’s +42; Mandeville +42;St. Thomas More+43; Brusly +56; Benton +63, St. Scholastica +88. Individual Leaderboard: Maci Williams,Brusly144; Evelynn Artieta, Walker 147; Tymber Joubert, St. Thomas More151; RhyanMarcelissen, Southside 152; Grace Goodwin, Benton 154; Matt Purgahn, Barbe160; SteffieHeitz Mandeville 161; Scarlett Kirsch, St. Joseph’s 163; Kate Boersma, Ruston163; Morgan Goudeau,Tioga 163. Other notable locals: Caroline Endsley,Southside 168; Campbell Dunn, St. Thomas More184; Avery Lusk, Southside 191 Division II Girls

Look to connect, not perfect, as host

BY CHEYANNE MUMPHREY Associated Press

Inviting friends and family members over for acelebration, holiday or routine dinner provides an opportunity for connection, but pressure to serve good-tasting food in aclean and welcoming environment can deter many people from hostingor prevent them from being fully present with their guests when theydo.

But there are not only ways to reduce the stress of entertaining at home, but strong arguments for throwing a party,planning agamenight or bringing guests together overa shared meal, according to mental health experts and experienced hosts. Without inperson social gatherings, adults can become increasingly lonely and isolated, especiallyasmore work is done remotely andconversations takeplacevia text messages.

AP PHOTO By CHEyANNE MUMPHREy

An arrangement of crackers, cheeses, meats, fruits and spreads is prepared for guests at agathering of friends at an apartment in Flagstaff, Ariz., on Feb.15.

“Oftentimes, we expectsomeone elsetoreach out to us. But if the vast majority of people are expectingsomeone else to do it, thenit’sgoing to become arare thing,” said JulianneHolt-Lunstad, apsychology professorat Brigham Young Universityand the lead author of a2023 U.S. surgeongeneral’s report on the widespread health risks ofloneliness.

Seasoned party-planners say thatstrivingtocreate meaningful interactions instead of for perfection alleviates some of the stress of hosting. Organizing activities that give guests away to settle in or mingle, planning asimple menu and asking for help are some of the strategies theyuse to create an event that everyone,even the host, can participateinand enjoy,theysay

“When we are more socially connected, we are not only happier, but we’re healthier and live longer,” Holt-Lunstad said. Gatherings notjustfor guest

Madeline Johnson, 24, posts recipes,decorationtipsand ideasfor backyard partieson social media under the name Madeline May.She saidshe got into hosting becauseshe was seeking socialconnection

“As an only child, Ialways wanted community,” saidJohnson, who hosted about adozen large events with friends and at least five smaller gatherings withfamilymembers last year “I started to realize if Iwanted that village around me that I would have to build it on my own.”

Now,she wants to help other people build the courage to inviteguests over and facilitate bonds between them.

SOMETHING FORHER

BY JA’KORIMADISON Staff writer

Mother’sDay weekend around Lafayette brings apackedlineup of brunch specials —from upscale multicourse dining to all-you-can-drink mimosadeals and Cajun classics with atwist. With mostrestaurants operating limited seating and reservation-only service, planning ahead is essential.

Belowisa guidetosomeofthe standout Mother’s Day brunchoptions in Lafayette.

CharleyG’s

Charley G’s, 3809 Ambassador Caffery Parkway,isoffering a three-course Mother’sDay brunch with timed seating throughout theday (10:30 a.m., 11:15 a.m., 12:45 p.m.,and 1:30 p.m.). Reservations are required and typically fill quickly due to limited seating and structured service.

brunchspots in Lafayette. Reservations are recommended.

Social Southern Table&Bar

Social Southern Table andBar, 3901 Johnston St., has itsregular Sunday brunch menu,but with a Mother’sDay highlight: the popular “Mimosa GoneRight” feature. It’s astrongoptionfor groups who want alively brunch atmospherewith Southern comfort dishes. Reservations are recommended.

Bonefish Grill

TheFrenchPress

TheFrenchPress, 3822 Ambassador CafferyParkway,is offering aspecial Mother’sDay brunch service from 9a.m. to 2p.m., alongside its popular regular menu.

Known for its Cajun-inspired breakfast dishes, beignets and shrimp-and-gritsvariations, it remains oneofthe most in-demand

Bonefish Grill, 1912 Kaliste Saloom Road, is opening early at 10 a.m. fora special Mother’sDay menu, featuring entrées like Baja seabassand bourbon-glazed filet mignon. While notcatered to Cajun cuisine, the cuisine looks familiar to an upscalechainexperience withseafood and steak options. Reservations are recommended.

from page5C

packedwithflavor and exceeded my expectations. The crust had this puff pastry sort of buoyancy

The smokiness really came through, not only in the chicken but it spread to the rest of the filling.

Iusually don’tenjoy pies like that, but this one was outstanding.

—Maddie Scott, features reporter

Papillote

n Randolph’s Restaurant, 31025 La. 1, White Castle

On arecent trip to meet with my CPAinWhite Castle, Istopped by Randolph’s Restaurant at Nottoway,and the experience did not disappoint. Iwavered between ordering the crab cakes and Nottoway’sPapillote.

Idecided on the papillote, snapper with crawfish and shrimp in acreamy bechamel sauce sealed in a

HOSTING

Continued from page5C

“There’sjust way too much unnecessary pressure that makes people feel like the bar to host is up here when it’smuch lower,” Johnson said.

As someone who is more naturally reserved, she likes planning an activity for her gatherings, such as painting aflower vaseoranswering trivia questions, to reducethe initial anxiety of socializing, especially when the group includes people who don’tknow each other Asking guests to bring different foods or assigningthemsharedtaskslike settingthe tablealsocan spark conversations and reduce work for the host, Holt-Lunstad said.

“In the U.S., we are so time deprived and have over-scheduled everything that it is difficult to sit down and be present, but ameal allows us to do that. We should notunderestimate the power of what food can do,” she said.

Kitchenshortcuts

Shared appetizers like charcuterie and grazing boards, and meals that can be prepared in advance such as casseroles, soups and otherdishes, are simplifying how people host, reducing time in the kitchen on the day of and making serving and cleanup easier Oregon-based chef and cookbook authorJosh McFadden, whoisknown for turning seasonal ingredients into approachable, shareable dishes, talks

MOTHER’S DAY

Continued from page5C

MarketEatz

parchment paperpouchand steamed. The large shrimp were tender andsucculent, the snapperflaky,yet firm. The bechamelsauce added a richdepthofflavor to both. Agenerousamount of crawfish tails topped offthe dish.

The meal beginswithhot fresh baked bread with housemade sugar cane butter.Tosay it was deliciousisanunderstatement. Icould not stop eatingit and finally had to move the breadbasketacross the

in one of hisbooks about grazing-style eating having rootsincommunalfarm tables.

Butter boards, which involve spreading soft or whipped butter on aplatter toppedwith honey, herbs or spices anddipped into with bread andcrackers, are a modern interpretation that have gained popularity.

“You can put alot of variety andtextures anddifferent flavorsinto things in an easier way,showing off the seasonality of the food. It becomes amobilemeal,” McFaddensaidinaninterviewwith The Associated Press. “It also creates conversation, and it’sjust afun way to eat.”

Serving foodarranged for picking from aplatterisa quickway to serve guests, he said.McFadden also suggestsincorporating store-bought foods and asking guests to bringspecific dishesorbeverages as other ways hosts can lighten their loads.

Katie Eu, 26, who lives in New Hampshire, says she lovesa “bring your own” type of gathering, especially sincehosting can get expensiveifit’snot apotluck or friends don’t take turns playing host,likeshe and hers do.

“Itisprettylow pressure becausewhatyou are providing is not the food, but the space for people to gather,” Eu said.

Supporting as theguest Providing asetting for social connection matters more than how great the food is, what thedecor looks like or how spaciousahome is, said Richard Slatcher, a

Wear it outand useitup!

Dear Heloise: Iread your column every week and have become concerned about how frequently your readers are offering hintsthat make life easier but aren’tgood for the environment.For example, in arecent column, areader suggested using aplastic tablecloth while cooking, painting and crafting to catch spills before theycan damage atabletop. This is agood suggestion; however,they go on to say thatyou can just throw away the plastic. Iwould like to seeHeloise stepup and use her public platform to help make apoint about how harmful plastic, especially one-time-use plastic, is to Earth. We can all help in this effort by being more conscious of what we’re using and tossing into landfills. Justa couple of sug-

table out of reach. Included are agarden salad and side. The salad was elevated with the house madepepper jelly vinaigrette that was tangy and savoy with a kick of heat.Iselected the mashed potatoes as myside order and dipped them in thebechamel sauce. Iwill be back to try the crab cakes. It’sworth the drive, and the grounds are beautifully manicured. Reservations are suggested for large groups.

—Ellen Ducote

Chocolate mochi donut

n Domochimobile food truck, Lafayette

The mochidonuts are fresh —and are, indeed, an interesting combination of mochiand donut.I’m not a big mochiperson, but the donut was delicious. The flavor and texture worked together well. It was asatisfying and unexpected treat!

—Jan Risher, LouisianaCulture editor

social psychology professor at theUniversity of Georgia.

“The other stuff is abonus,” Slatcher said. “It’s really about the people.”

Inviting people into your home for the first time neverthelesscreates afeeling of vulnerabilitysince guestscan learn alot about the host’staste, interests and beliefs through the color scheme, the books on the shelves, andthe artwork and mementos on display

Trytoremember that vulnerabilityalso is an essential elementinfosteringauthentic human connections, said Slatcher, who co-led research with Holt-Lunstad on how attending live events can combat loneliness.

Guests also have aresponsibility when it comes to making asocial event fulfilling for themselves and their host,Holt-Lunstad said.

“If you’re passively being an attendee, you are not going to feel connected,” she said.

For Johnson, guests not confirming their attendance, showing up lateornot showing up at allare amajor sources of stress.

“I put my heart andsoul into everything,” shesaid. “If you want to truly be a good guest, put the invitation on your calendar,don’t doublebook yourself andtry to show up on time.”

Guests also show consideration for their host by cleaningupafter themselves to the extentpossible and not overstaying theirwelcome, according to Eu.

“Hosting is hard,sobeing awareofspace that you’re coming into and space you’re taking up” matters, she said.

By The Associated Press

Hints from Heloise

gestions to help in the fight against this harmful practice: Say “no” to straws whendining at arestaurant. Bring your own togo containers when dining out that are preferably metal or glass, since we can ingest plastic particles when eating food from plastic containers. Youcan also try switching over to glass containers at home to reduce the amount of harmful plastics that go into our bodies. These are just afew ideas that can be used to reduce the harm to our environment and our bodies.

—Cindy C., in Castleton, New York Cindy,Ilove to see someone who is eager to save the environment. While this is certainly very commendable, getting rid of plastic everywhere is going to be a long and difficult task.

TODAYINHISTORY

established under an executive order signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Forexample, many people use plastic shampoo bottlesintheir bathroom. So many people accidentally break glass jars andbottles, thenhavethe problemof being barefoot with glass all around. There arealso disposable syringes, draping, andothermedical supplies thatare made of plastic to prevent crosscontaminationinhospitals anddoctor’soffices.These arejust two exampleswhere plastic actually hasa benefit. Isincerelyhope science can come up withabetter alternative,evenifitcosts alittlemore. No doubt someonewill invent abetter productthanplasticinthe future. However,I do want to pointout that we should alldoour parts to reuse and recycleitemsasmuchas possible

Sendahinttoheloise@ heloise.com.

Today is Wednesday, May 6, the126th day of 2026. There are 239 days left in the year

Todayinhistory: On May 6, 1937, the hydrogen-filled German airship Hindenburg caught fire and crashed while attemptingtodock at Lakehurst,New Jersey; 35 of the97people on board and one crew member on the ground were killed.

Also on this date: In 1882, President Chester Alan Arthur signed the Chinese Exclusion Act, which barred Chinese laborers from immigrating to theU.S. for 10 years. (Theact would remain in effect until 1943.)

In 1889, theEiffel Tower opened to the public as part of the Paris World’sFair In 1935, theWorks Progress Administration was

In 1994, the Channel Tunnel connecting England and France beneath the English Channel was officially opened in aceremony attended by Queen Elizabeth II and French President François Mitterrand.

In 2004, President George W. Bush apologized forthe abuse of Iraqi prisoners by American soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison, but rejected calls forDefense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’sresignation.

In 1954, medical student Roger Bannister broke the four-minute mile during a track meet in Oxford, England, finishing in 3:59.4.

In 2013, three women whohad been kidnapped and held foryears are found alive at their captor’shome in Cleveland, Ohio. (Ariel Castro pleaded

guilty months later to kidnapping, rape and other offenses and died by suicide weeks after starting alife sentence plus 1,000 years.) In 2023, King Charles III wascrowned at Westminster Abbey in agrandiose ceremony replete with pompand ritual. Charles wasthe 40th sovereign enthroned in the abbey and, at 74, the oldest. Today’sbirthdays: Rock musician Bob Seger is 81. Country musician Jimmie Dale Gilmore is 81. Former British PrimeMinister Tony Blair is 73. TV host TomBergeron is 71. Actor RomaDowney is 66. Actordirector George Clooney is 65. Hockey Hall of Famer Martin Brodeur is 54. Actor Adrianne Palicki is 43. NBApoint guard Chris Paul is 41. Actor-comedian Sasheer Zamata is 40. Rapper Meek Mill is 39. Actorsinger Naomi Scott is 33.

It’sabudget-friendlyoption that still delivers acelebratory feel,withacasual setup ideal for larger family groups.Reservationsare recommended.

Sunday’s Soda Fountain

Market Eatz, 819 E. Broussard Road, is offering a brunch service from 9a.m. to 2p.m., highlighted by a crowd-pleasing deal: halfoffbottomless mimosasfor moms

Sunday’sSoda Fountain, 431 Jefferson St., offersa more nostalgic twist along withbottomless mimosas from10a.m.to2 p.m.along with acurated brunch menu. The setting leans retro and relaxed, making it alighter alternative to full-scalerestaurantbruncheswhile still feeling festive. Reservationsare necessary

tAuRus (April 20-May 20) Speak up and share your thoughts, intentions and feelings, and be willing to back what you say with actions. By reaching out, you will gain insight into unexpected opportunities and options.

GEMInI (May 21-June 20) Your desire for change requires your attention. Review your options and hit the reset button. Embracing something that's new and exciting will bring life and joy back into your life.

cAncER (June 21-July 22) Take a tour of your community and see what's available. Participation is necessary if you want to bring out the best in yourself. Be the one to make a difference.

LEo (July 23-Aug. 22) Share your history, background and experience. The more you offer, the more you'll receive. Stand up for your beliefs, go through the proper channels and take a position that has an impact.

VIRGo (Aug. 23-sept. 22) Participating in events will bring you closer to a decision or change you need to make. A personal change will help fine-tune your daily routine to suit your needs.

LIBRA (sept. 23-oct. 23) Embrace change, discover what's available and put your energy where it counts and brings the greatest satisfaction. Simplify your life to ensure you can focus on what's important to you.

scoRPIo (oct. 24-nov. 22) Refuse to let anger set in and overreaction take over. Focus on compassion, understanding and finding resolution in your words

and actions. Opportunity comes when you make the right decisions. Listen carefully.

sAGIttARIus (nov. 23-Dec. 21) Stick close to home and to the ones you love. Protect your assets and possessions from loss or damage. Use common sense and discipline if someone tries to take advantage of you.

cAPRIcoRn (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) Think before you act. Problems will surface if you are too rigid or unwilling to see or understand the gravity of a situation. Stick close to home, listen to experts and take the simplest path forward.

AQuARIus (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) Be bold in your actions, not with your words. Take pride in how and where you live. Spend more time and money on how you look and feel and less on criticizing or making unrealistic comparisons.

PIscEs (Feb. 20-March 20) Think matters through. Time is on your side, and considering the consequences of your actions prior to making a move is in your best interest. Keep your thoughts and intentions secret.

ARIEs (March 21-April 19) Slow down and get a grip on what's possible to make your life easier. Let go of what you have no control over, and focus on where and how you can make a difference.

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. The object is to place the numbers1 to 9inthe empty squares so that each row, each column and each 3x3 box contains the same number only once. Thedifficulty level of the Sudoku increases from Monday to Sunday.

Yesterday’s PuzzleAnswer

Bridge

By PHILLIP ALDER

Stanley Milgram, asocial psychologist who died in 1984,said, “It is easy to ignoreresponsibilitywhenoneisonlyan intermediate linkinachainofaction.”

The player who will become the dummy is atad like that, but in particular must notignorehis responsibilitiesin the bidding Today’s deal, though, features another word in that sentence. Look at the South hand. West’s openingbid of one heart is followedbytwo passes. Whatshould Southdo?

In the second seat, immediately over aone-level opening bid, asinglejump overcall in asuit is weak, indicating a respectablesix-cardsuitand some 5-10 high-card points. In the balancing seat, though,thejumpovercallbecomesintermediate. It showsadecent six-card suit and some14-16 high-card points —one winner more than aminimum opening bid.

Here, over South’s two-spade bid, presumablyWest would rebid three hearts, and Northwould compete with three spades. Thenlet’s assumethat Southshrugshisshouldersandbidsfour spades.

West leads the heartking. East overtakes with his ace and returnsthe heart two.West wins,cashes the club ace, and continueswithanotherclub.Howshould declarer continue? This deal is easy for someone whoremembers thechain of actionand inaction during the bidding. East passedover one heart, but has producedtheheartace.Hecannotalsohave thespadeking;otherwise,hewouldhave responded. So South should play aspade to his ace, being relieved when the king comes tumblingdown. Declarer drawsthe last trump and claims. ©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

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 EXPEnsIVE: ek-SPEN-siv: Costly.

Average mark14words

Timelimit 35 minutes

Can you find 27 or morewords in EXPENSIVE?

WoRD —cHARIty

BRIEFS

FROM WIRE REPORTS

Publishers allege Meta

CEO OK’d infringement

NEW YORK Five publishing houses and author Scott Turow

sued Meta and CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Tuesday, alleging the company illegally used millions of copyrighted works to train its AI language system Llama.

The class action lawsuit, filed in federal court in Manhattan, accuses the tech giant of copyright infringement and opens up a new front in the ongoing battle between the book community and developers of AI.

The plaintiffs allege that Zuckerberg and Meta “followed their well-known motto ‘move fast and break things’” by illegally drawing upon a massive trove of books and journal articles for Llama.

“Defendants reproduced and distributed millions of copyrighted works without permission, without providing any compensation to authors or publishers, and with full knowledge that their conduct violated copyright law,” the complaint reads in part. “Zuckerberg himself personally authorized and actively encouraged the infringement.”

Hiring improves, little change in job openings

WASHINGTON U.S. job openings were essentially unchanged in March but hiring improved before the full impact of the Iran war hit the economy

Employers posted 6.87 million jobs in March, compared to 6.92 million in February, the Labor Department reported Tuesday

The job market has been up and down so far this year after a dismal 2025. And the Iran war, which began Feb. 28, has clouded the outlook for the economy and hiring.

The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey showed that layoffs rose in March. But hiring improved: Employers added 5.55 million gross jobs, most since February 2024. More Americans also quit their jobs a sign of confidence in their prospects.

Job openings have come down more or less steadily since peaking at a record 12.3 million in March 2022 as the U.S. economy bounded back from COVID-19 lockdowns. High interest rates, a response to an outburst of inflation in 2021-2022; uncertainty over President Donald Trump’s policies; and, potentially, the disruptive impact of artificial intelligence have discouraged robust hiring.

Pa. alleges chatbot portrays itself as doctor

HARRISBURG, Pa Pennsylvania has sued an artificial intelligence chatbot maker, saying its chatbots illegally hold themselves out as doctors and are deceiving the system’s users into thinking they are getting medical advice from a licensed professional.

The lawsuit, filed Friday, asks the statewide Commonwealth Court to order Character Technologies Inc., the company behind Character.AI, to stop its chatbots “from engaging in the unlawful practice of medicine and surgery.”

Gov Josh Shapiro’s administration called it a “first-of-itskind enforcement action” by a governor and it comes amid growing pressure by states on tech companies to rein in chatbots’ potentially dangerous messages, especially to children. That includes a consumer protection lawsuit filed by Kentucky against Character Technologies, and warnings by state attorneys general that chatbots are potentially violating a raft of state laws. Character.AI declined to comment on the lawsuit Tuesday but sent a statement saying it prioritizes responsible product development and the well-being of its users It posts disclaimers to inform users that characters on its website are not real people and that everything they say “should be treated as fiction,” the statement said

Stocks rally after oil prices ease

BY STAN CHOE AP business writer

NEW YORK The U.S. stock market is rallying toward records Tuesday after an easing of oil prices let Wall Street turn its focus back to the big profits that companies keep producing.

Stocks got a boost after oil prices gave back much of their big jumps from Monday The price for a barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, fell 4% to $109.87 after briefly topping $115 on Monday, though it’s still well above its roughly $70 price from before the

war with Iran.

U.S. military leaders said Tuesday that a ceasefire with Iran remains in effect, even though Iran was blamed for attacks against the United Arab Emirates, a U.S. ally the day before. The U.S. military is meanwhile trying to force open a path in the Strait of Hormuz, which would allow oil tankers to resume shipments from the Persian Gulf and hopefully bring down the price of crude.

Even with the war ongoing, the U.S. stock market has remained remarkably resilient on its recordsetting run That’s in large part

due to the strong profits that U.S. companies have reported for the start of 2026 despite the rise in oil prices since the end of February

“This has been a ‘why ask why’ market,’” according to Scott Wren, senior global market strategist at Wells Fargo Investment Institute.

“You just have to go with it.”

Even though many risks are still weighing on the market “investors are looking at earnings” and how much companies are spending on AI data centers and other investments, he said.

DuPont’s stock rallied 8.3% after the chemical giant led another

cavalcade of companies reporting better-than-expected profits for the latest quarter

DuPont said its water technologies business felt some impact from the war due to logistics disruptions in the Middle East. But it nevertheless raised its forecasts for financial results over the full year

Other winners included American Electric Power Co., which rose 3.2%, and Cummins, which added 2.4%, after they likewise made more money during the first three months of the year than analysts expected.

SELLING OFF SPIRIT

Airline begins liquidation as skeleton crew oversees process

BY RIO YAMAT AP airlines and travel writer

Lawyers for Spirit Airlines returned to a U.S. bankruptcy court in New York on Tuesday to seek approval for dismantling the once-busy budget carrier and turning its parts into cash for creditors.

The liquidation marks a dramatic turn for Spirit, which filed for bankruptcy protection in August 2025, hoping to escape financial ruin. The airline’s parent company was attempting to restructure the business for the second time since November 2024, when it abruptly stopped operating flights over the weekend.

Since the going-out-of-business announcement early Saturday, lawyers filed a series of court motions laying out a rapid wind-down plan centered on selling off every possible Spirit asset, from airplanes and engines to spare parts — and limiting additional payroll, leasing and other costs. The shutdown itself was tightly choreographed. The company, Spirit Aviation Holdings Inc., said it made its announcement in the middle of the night to ensure the jetliners making their final runs for the airline were safely on the ground and their crews accounted for Three days later, the sense of urgency car-

ried into U.S. Bankruptcy Court, where the company’s lawyers were asking a judge to move quickly They asked for expedited approval of the proposed wind-down plan, arguing that speed would benefit Spirit’s creditors and customers.

“Any delay will cause chaos, confusion and cost the estate significant time and money,” one motion stated, noting the airline was “not generating any revenue.” Spirit attorney Marshall Huebner said during a Tuesday court hearing that rising jet fuel costs since the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Iran “engulfed Spirit entirely.”

The airline’s fuel expenses grew by roughly $100 million “in March and April alone,” and rapidly drained Spirit’s liquidity and derailed its restructuring efforts,” Huebner said. He apologized directly to Spirit’s employees and customers, especially passengers who he said may now be completely “priced out” of certain routes without the ultra lowcost carrier Huebner described a swift effort by other airlines and other segments of the aviation industry to assist Spirit’s employees and customers once the airline’s end looked inevitable.

“The entire industry sprang into action to get our people home,” Huebner said Spirit

employed about 17,000 people and carried about 50,000 passengers on its final day of operations. The final flight, which traveled from Detroit to Dallas, landed after midnight Saturday With its planes grounded, Spirit said it planned to keep a skeleton crew of about 150 employees initially, eventually shrinking to roughly 40. The group, largely made up of veteran staff and executives, including some “senior management employees,” will be responsible for securing aircraft, coordinating logistics and overseeing the liquidation process.

The company also was seeking Judge Sean Lane’s approval to provide retention incentives to keep those workers in place through the liquidation.

In the last two weeks, Spirit was in discussions with the Trump administration about a hoped-for rescue deal that fell through, eliminating what the company described as its last viable path forward. Of the potential bailout, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Saturday, “We oftentimes don’t have half a billion dollars laying around.”

Duffy said other U.S. airlines, including United, Delta, JetBlue and Southwest, were offering $200 one-way fares for a limited time to travelers holding Spirit confirmation numbers and proof of purchase.

BY JOSH BOAK Associated Press

WASHINGTON White House economists estimate that President Donald Trump’s deals with pharmaceutical companies to drop some of their U.S. prescription drug prices to what they charge in other countries could save $529 billion over the next 10 years.

The analysis obtained by The Associated Press includes the first economy-wide projections behind a policy at the core of Trump’s pitch to voters going into November’s midterm elections for control of the House and Senate Democratic lawmakers have been doubtful about the savings claimed by Trump and these new numbers are likely to trigger additional questions about the data.

Cost-of-living issues are at the forefront of voters’ concerns and higher energy prices tied to the

Iran war have deepened the pub-

lic’s anxiety Trump has tried in part to address affordability concerns by focusing on his efforts to cut deals with companies so that the cost of prescription drugs in the U.S. would no longer be dramatically higher than in other affluent nations.

“Now you have the lowest drug prices anywhere in the world,”

Trump said at a Friday rally before a crowd of seniors in Florida.

“And that alone should win us the midterms.”

The analysis was done by administration officials for the White House Council of Economic Advisers. They also estimated that federal and state governments could save a combined $64.3 billion on Medicaid during the next decade because of what Trump calls his “most favored nation” policy on drug prices. Few of the details of the deals

struck by the Trump administration and 17 leading pharmaceutical companies have been made public, making it hard to independently verify the projected savings The White House analysis sought to estimate the prospective savings as more medications come onto the market and fall under Trump’s framework — with one model in the report tallying the possible savings at $733 billion over a decade.

Trump and his Department of Health and Human Services have touted his drug-pricing deals as transformative and urged Congress to codify their principles into law

Democratic lawmakers have challenged the administration’s claims of savings. Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and 17 Senate Democrats in April proposed a measure requiring the adminis-

tration to disclose the terms of the agreements signed by pharmaceutical companies.

“If these deals are so great, why is the Trump administration afraid of showing them to the public?” Wyden said when announcing the measure. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr said his team would share details that didn’t include proprietary information or trade secrets.

The potential savings estimated by the Trump administration would be substantial as Americans spent $467 billion on prescription drugs in 2024, according to the most recent government data available.

The analysis is premised on the idea that foreign countries would also pay more for their prescription drugs, which would diversify drugmakers’ sources of revenue and preserve their ability to innovate with new treatments.