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M o n d ay, a p r i l 6, 2026
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Political wedge on right grows on carbon capture Industry groups push back on opposition BY DAVID J. MITCHELL staff writer
sTAFF PHoTos By JoHN BALLANCE
Rhonda Landry-Poché, a fourth-generation strawberry farmer, shows a wooden hand carrier that was used to pick strawberries.
‘IT TAKES A VILLAGE’
In Louisiana’s Berry Belt, family-owned strawberry farm navigates a changing industry BY CLAIRE GRUNEWALD
staff writer
Rhonda Landry-Poché remembers picking strawberries with her Paw Paw side by side, as he told her to pick them fast and by the stems. Her grandfather was the second owner of the family farm, taking over in the 1930s, and he and his family put in years of long hours of manual labor to ensure the success of the strawberry
business. “He’d sit in the rocking chair and talk to the kids about his mule named Ada, and how they didn’t have tractors then (on the farm) and how he and his mule would work,” Landry-Poché said. Now decades and plenty of technology advances later, at 61 years old, Landry-Poché owns the family farm as it celebrates its centennial this year. The fourth-generation, family-owned Landry-Poché Strawberry Farm was
established in 1926 and is located in the small town of Springfield. This strawberry season, the farm planted 120,000 plants across 6 acres. The farm currently supplies the Robert Fresh Market stores in the New Orleans area, but customers can also come to the farm to buy strawberries during the season and even pick them themselves. The farm also hosts field trips nearly every day.
ä see STRAWBERRY, page 4A
In a video posted online, Gov. Jeff Landry called State Treasurer John Fleming a flip-flopper; Fleming shot back that Landry was “a liar.” In a House committee hearing at the Louisiana Legislature, two representatives invoked the Ten Commandments against lying, stealing and covetousness. And in a new social media promotion, a new conservative advocacy group called MAGA Energy Project has accused community and environmental groups of being in bed with “liberal extremists like George Soros” and Michael Bloomberg. These skirmishes are all part of a political battle that is becoming one of the fiercest in Louisiana: The fight over carbon capture and sequestration, or CCS. That process pumps carbon dioxide deep underground and stores it there permanently in a bid to cut industrial emissions that contribute to climate change and create so-called “low carbon” products. State economic development officials say $75 billion in economic development — about three-fourths of the total capital investment announced under Landry’s tenure — is tied to the technology, which the energy industry says is critical for the future of Louisiana’s fossil fuel-reliant industrial base. But strong discontent has stirred in rural and suburban Louisiana among residents concerned about property rights, environmental impacts and safety.
ä see CARBON, page 5A
Study examines worsening river salt intrusion Crevasses slow current in main channel, it reveals
BY MIKE SMITH staff writer
of Hormuz, crucial for global trade, isn’t opened. He ended with “Praise be to Allah.” Trump has issued such deadlines before but extended them when mediators have claimed progress toward ending the war, which has killed thousands, shaken global markets and spiked fuel prices in just over five weeks.
New modeling is deepening understanding of why saltwater intrusion up the Mississippi River has worsened in recent years, pointing to a previously underestimated factor as the primary cause and raising questions over how drinking water can be protected in the future. The study of river dynamics by Tulane University researchers shows that crevasses, or breaks in the lower Mississippi’s banks, are the main factor in the recent worsening of saltwater intrusion, which can threaten drinking water for vast areas of southeast Louisiana, including New Orleans. Sea level rise and the deepening of the river for shipping purposes have also contributed, but the crevasses located in Plaquemines Parish south of where the main levee system ends are by far the primary cause because of the way they slow the current in the main channel, the study shows. The findings are in line with preliminary assessments from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is engaged in its own
ä see IRAN, page 5A
ä see SALT, page 4A
Trump issues fiery new threat against Iran Details of U.s. aviator’s rescue emerge
rescued a wounded aviator whose Irandowned plane fell behind enemy lines. A defiant Iran struck CO ONFLICT infrastructure targets in neighboring Gulf Arab BY MATTHEW LEE, BASSEM MROUE, IN THE T KONSTANTIN TOROPIN and SAMY MAGDY MIIDDLE countries and threatened to restrict another heavily Associated Press EAST AST used regional waterway, the Bab el-Mandeb Strait TEHRAN, Iran — President Donald Trump on Sunday made expletive-filled threats off the Arabian Peninsula. Trump on social media vowed to hit Iran’s against Iran and its infrastructure if it doesn’t open the Strait of Hormuz by his power plants and bridges and said the counTuesday deadline, after American forces try would be “living in Hell” if the Strait
WEATHER HIGH 73 LOW 46 PAGE 12C
ä Iran rescue considered a complicated extraction. PAGE 7A
Classified .....................7C Deaths .........................7A Nation-World................2A Comics-Puzzles .....4C-6C Living............................1C opinion ........................8A Commentary ................9A Metro ...........................6A sports ..........................1B
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