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M o n d ay, M a r c h 17, 2025
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How La. changed on death penalty
Protesters ask Landry to stay Shifting politics led to restart of executions, nitrogen gas option execution. ä
PAGE 8A
BY SAM KARLIN
took a seat at a committee table to present a controversial bill. Then-Attorney General Jeff On a busy day at the State Capitol Landry’s office had asked Musin 2019, a freshman legislator was carello, R-Hammond, to sponsor about to run into a buzz saw. legislation to blanket informaState Rep. Nicholas Muscarello tion in secrecy about companies
Staff writer
providing execution drugs to the state. It was part of a bid to end a decadelong pause in executions in Louisiana. A lawyer from Landry’s office joined Muscarello as they presented the bill to the Senate Judiciary B Committee.
The panel had a Democratic majority picked by former Senate President John Alario to act as a backstop for John Bel Edwards, who was governor at the time. They swiftly killed the legislation. Edwards was in the middle of a
tightly-contested bid for reelection. He would not come out publicly against the death penalty until years later, on his way out of the
ä See EXECUTIONS, page 5A
ELECTION 2025
St. George voters to decide on charter Mayor, council seats also on ballot
BY PATRICK SLOAN-TURNER Staff writer
Early voting began Saturday for several elections that will shape the government of the new city of St. George. At the forefront of the ballot is the proposed home rule charter, a contentious measure that will determine the city’s governing structure. Also on the list of pivotal races are a heated mayoral contest between interim Mayor Dustin Yates and a challenger, Jim Morgan, and several races for seats on the City Council. Early voting will run through Saturday, each day from 8:30 a.m. until 6 p.m. On March 29, election day, polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. For more information on how to vote, visit geauxvote.com. Here’s an overview of the election that will decide what the newly incorporated city will look like. Following a Louisiana Supreme Court ruling last April that allowed for St. George to incorporate, a commission of 11 people drafted a form of government to put before
STAFF PHOTOS By JAVIER GALLEGOS
IN THE GREEN
ABOVE: The Wearin’ of the Green Parade rolls Sunday through the Garden District. LEFT: Paradegoers reach for throws during the parade.
ä See more photos on Page 8A.
ä See ST. GEORGE, page 4A
‘We went from health care heroes to ... almost villains’
as the storied U.S. Navy the state, communities rallied — trusted,” said Dr. Kara Ward, a pushback to COVID-19 mitigation Five years after COVID hospitals Blue Angels flew over metro New sewing masks, donating meals, critical care and emergency med- efforts has widened into broader saluting front-line em- posting signs in the yards of health icine physician in New Orleans. resistance to routine immunizahit Louisiana, trust Orleans, ployees in a monthslong battle care workers overnight as shows “There is a huge mistrust now in tions. Health care workers are health care.” now navigating deepening skeptiagainst COVID-19. The Krewe of of gratitude. in vaccines is falling Red Nearly five years later, the apThe pandemic marked a turning cism amid a measles outbreak in Beans was organizing food
BY EMILY WOODRUFF Staff writer
In May 2020, health care workers gathered on the rooftops of
WEATHER HIGH 74 LOW 46 PAGE 12A
drop-offs for weary staff, many of whom were sleeping in separate rooms from their families or stripping down and hosing off outside before stepping indoors. Across
preciation has faded, and so has the public’s trust. “We went from health care heroes to now … we are almost villains at this point, and not to be
point in trust in medicine, and the neighboring Texas, the nation’s state’s declining vaccine coverage first bird flu death in southwest is a measure of the long shadow Louisiana, and a steady stream of it cast and the politics that have ä See COVID, page 4A evolved in its wake. What began as
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