The Times-Picayune 05-18-2026

MurrillatcenterofGOP effortstoreshape N.O.

Once stateattorneygeneral ‘picks aside, she fights at allcosts’

BY JAMES FINN Staff writer

In the span of less thana month, Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill indicted New Orleans’ outgoing sheriff, threatenedtoremove eight of the city’sleaders from office and won alandmarkU.S. Supreme Court case limiting the Voting Rights Act Murrill’soffice alsonotched several less high-profile arrests and convictions in that period: people accused of possessing child pornography,and a dancer who disrupted last year’sSuper Bowl halftime show

The intensive pace Murrill hasset as Louisiana’stop legal officer reflects her wide-ranging effort to reshape theAttorney General’sOfficeinher image. ARepublican often discussed as apotential candidatefor governor,Murrill wields the office as adoeverything juggernaut that seeks to implement herconservative vision at all levels of jurisprudence.

“Manylawyers are afraid to bring certain issues to adecision-point forfear of making ‘badlaw,’ ”said Stephen Gele, aNew Orleans-based ethics attorney who has represented Murrill and Gov.Jeff Landry

Murrill “litigates issues to aconclusion,” Gele said. “That’s theonly way to know what the law really is.” Murrill haspursuedcriminal cases in greater numbers than past attorneys general, prosecuting corruptionbypublic officials and child sexual abuseatprolificclips and acrossthe state. Her deputies have defendedcontroversial state laws, including arequirement that public schoolspostthe TenCommandments in classrooms,and soughttohasten death row executions at the federal

ä See MURRILL, page 5A

Boogaloo redeaux

Al ‘Lil Fats’Jackson performs Sunday at BayouBoogalooatThe Broadside in NewOrleans.The musicfestivalcelebratedits 20th anniversaryover theweekend with anew footprint. Historically setonBayou St.John, this year’s eventveeredawayfromthe waterway andwas spread over two locations: theBroadside andThe PitotHouse More on 4A

Hilton Riversideplanning$18Mupgrade to rooms yearslong renovation in thirdphase

BY RICH COLLINS Staff writer

The owner of the largest hotel in New Orleans will begin athird phase of renovations Monday that willcomplete a$50 million overhaul of its 1,622 rooms The Hilton New Orleans Riverside Hotel room refresh, which

began in 2019 but was slowed by thepandemic, is due to be complete in October,whileadditional work on elevators and other parts of thecomplex will continue for the next three years.

Located at 2Poydras St. in the CentralBusiness District, the29-story Hilton Riverside opened in 1977 andhas longbeen apopular destination forlarge meetings and events. Butlike the city’s other towering downtown hotels,mostly built in the 1970s and 1980s, the Hil-

ton has been due for a refresh to modernize its rooms andcommon areas and remaincompetitive in amarketplace that has seen the arrival of several glitzy but smaller competitors.

“Whenyou have a battleship like this, with 1,622 rooms,you’re almost constantly renovating,” said David Piscola, the hotel’sgeneral manager The makeover comesas developers of aplanned

ä See HILTON, page 5A

Senatornever recoveredfrombacking conviction of Trump

BY TYLER BRIDGES Staff writer

In retrospect, U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidysealed his defeat for reelection on Feb. 13, 2021. That’sthe day he voted to convict then-former President Donald Trump on impeachment charges that Trump incited the assault by his supporters on theCapitol five weeks earlier— just after Cassidy had won reelection with Trump’sendorsement.

Trump felt deceived, gotU.S. Rep. Julia Letlowtojump into the Senate race in January this year with his endorsement and exacted retribution Saturdaynight when Cassidy finishedthird in the Republican Senateprimary Letlow and state Treasurer John Fleming finishedfirst andsecondand advancetothe June 27 runoff. Cassidy’sreelection campaign is done He will serve out thefinalsix months of his Senate term.

“Cassidy’spolitical career is over,” Ed Chervenak, apolitical scientist at the University of New Orleans, said on Sunday Still, as Democratic political strategist James Carville noted, “Two terms in the Senate is nothing to sneeze at.”

ä See CASSIDY, page 4A

BRIEFS FROM WIRE REPORTS

10 random shootings

leave 4 hurt in Austin

AUSTIN, Texas Two suspects were being sought in at least 10 random weekend shootings in Austin, Texas, including at fire stations, that left four people injured, the city’s mayor said Sunday

The city ordered residents of a large part of southern area of the Texas capital city to shelter in place Sunday while the search continues.

Austin Mayor Kirk Watson spoke about the shootings at a news conference and said an investigation continues.

The shootings occurred Saturday night and Sunday morning, two of them at fire stations, leaving one person with serious injuries and three others with minor ones, Police Chief Lisa Davis said.

Davis said the suspects appeared to be stealing vehicles as they traveled.

Police identified the suspects as Hispanic men in their late teens and released what appeared to be screenshots taken from video.

“We don’t have any specific motive that has been identified. In fact, these actions appear to be random,” Watson said. “It appears that as part of this, people are changing vehicles.”

Davis said at least four vehicles have been used by the suspects. Taiwan’s leader defends U.S. arms purchase

TAIPEI,Taiwan Taiwan’s president on Sunday stressed that arms purchases from the United States are “the most important deterrent” of regional conflict and instability, after President Donald Trump called into question continued U.S. support of Taiwan following his visit to China.

U.S. arms sales to Taiwan and security cooperation between the two sides are not only governed by law but also a catalyst for regional peace and stability, President Lai Ching-te said in a statement.

“We thank President Trump for his continued support for peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait since his first term, including the continuous increase in the scale and amount of arms sales to Taiwan,” he said. His statement came days after Trump raised doubts over his willingness to continue to sell arms to Taiwan, the island democracy that China claims as its own breakaway province, to be retaken by force if necessary

The U.S., like all countries that have formal ties with China, doesn’t recognize Taiwan as a country but has been the island’s strongest backer and arms supplier Washington is bound by its own laws to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself and sees all threats to the island as a matter of grave concern.

Trump already approved in December a record-breaking $11 billion arms package to Taiwan including missiles, drones, artillery systems and military software.

In an interview aired Friday on Fox News, just as Trump wrapped up a high-stakes visit to China, he said he has yet to greenlight a new $14 billion arms package to Taiwan and that it “depends on China.”

Bulgaria singer wins Eurovision Song Contest

VIENNA Bulgarian singer Dara won the 70th Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday with her infectious party anthem “Bangaranga,” giving the southeast European country its first-ever victory in the competition.

Israeli competitor Noam Bettan came second after a contest in Vienna clouded by protests and a boycott over the country’s participation.

Dara beat 24 other competitors during Saturday’s grand final of the sequin-drenched pop music competition. The song’s infectious beats and tightly choreographed dance routine proved a hit with both national juries in participating countries and viewers around the world, whose votes together decide the winner “This is unbelievable,” Dara said at a post-show news conference early Sunday “I don’t even know what’s going on.” She thanked “everyone who felt the bangaranga and felt connected to the force.”

Drone strikes UAE nuclear plant

U.S. and Iran signal they are prepared to resume war

BY JON GAMBRELL and SAMY MAGDY Associated Press

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates

A drone strike sparked a fire on the edge of the United Arab Emirates’ sole nuclear power plant on Sunday in what authorities called an “unprovoked terrorist attack.” No one was blamed, but it highlighted the risk of renewed war as the United States and Iran signaled they were ready to fight again.

There were no reported injuries or radiological release. The UAE, which has hosted air defenses and personnel from Israel, recently accused Iran of launching drone and missile attacks.

Tensions have risen over the Strait of Hormuz, a vital energy waterway gripped by Iran, which is under a U.S. naval blockade.

“For Iran, the Clock is Ticking, and they better get moving, FAST, or there won’t be anything left of them,” U.S President Donald Trump posted on social media shortly after a call with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, whose attack on Iran with the U.S. sparked the war on Feb. 28.

Trump has repeatedly set deadlines for Tehran and

then backed off.

“Our armed forces’ fingers are on the trigger, while diplomacy is also continuing,” Mohsen Rezaei, a military adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, said on state television.

The ceasefire remains tenuous, with diplomatic efforts for a more durable peace having faltered. And fighting has heated up between Israel and the Iranbacked Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon despite a nominal ceasefire there.

The UAE Defense Ministry said three drones came over its western border with Saudi Arabia, with the other two intercepted. It was investigating who launched them. Iran and allied Shiite militias in Iraq have launched drone attacks targeting Gulf Arab states in the war

The attack, “whether carried out by the principal actor or through one of its proxies, represents a dangerous escalation,” Anwar Gargash, a diplomatic adviser to the UAE president, said on social media.

Saudi Arabia condemned the attack, and later said it had intercepted three drones that entered from Iraqi airspace.

The $20 billion Barakah nuclear power plant was built by the UAE with the help of South Korea and went online in 2020. It is the only nuclear power plant in the Arab world and can provide a quarter of the energy needs in the UAE, a federation of seven sheikhdoms that is home to Dubai.

The UAE’s nuclear regulator said the fire didn’t affect plant safety and “all units are operating as normal.”

The International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, said the strike caused a fire in an electrical generator and one reactor was being powered by emergency diesel generators.

It’s the first time the four-reactor Barakah plant has been targeted in the war Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels, whom the UAE has battled as part of a Saudi-led coalition, claimed to have targeted the plant while it was under construction in 2017, which Abu Dhabi denied.

The UAE signed a strict deal with the U.S. over the nuclear power plant, known as a “123 agreement,” in which it agreed to forgo domestic uranium enrichment and reprocessing of spent fuel to ease any proliferation concerns. Its uranium

comes from abroad. That’s very different from the nuclear program in Iran that is at the heart of long-running tensions with the United States and Israel.

Iran insists its program is for peaceful purposes, but it has enriched its uranium close to weapons-grade levels and is widely suspected of having had a military component to its program until at least 2003. It has often restricted the work of U.N. inspectors, including since the 12-day war with Israel last year Israel is widely believed to be the only nucleararmed country in the region, but has neither confirmed nor denied having atomic weapons. Iran struck near Israel’s Dimona nuclear facility during the war Nuclear plants have increasingly been targeted in wars in recent years, including during Russia’s fullscale invasion of Ukraine that began in 2022. During the Iran war, Tehran repeatedly claimed its Bushehr nuclear power plant came under attack, though there was no direct damage to its Russian-run reactor or any radiological release.

Israel is coordinating with the U.S. about a possible resumption of attacks, said two people familiar with the situation, including an Israeli military officer They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were discussing confidential military preparations.

WHO declares global emergency over Ebola outbreak

88 deaths reported as cases found in Congo, Uganda

BY CHINEDU ASADU and SALEH MWANAMILONGO Associated Press

ABUJA, Nigeria The World Health Organization declared the Ebola disease outbreak caused by a rare virus in Congo and neighboring Uganda a public health emergency of international concern on Sunday, after more than 300 suspected cases and 88 deaths

WHO said the outbreak doesn’t meet the criteria of a pandemic emergency like COVID-19, and advised against the closure of international borders.

WHO said on X that a laboratory-confirmed case has also been reported in Congo’s capital, Kinshasa, which is about 620 miles from the outbreak’s epicenter in the eastern province of Ituri, suggesting a

on X on Sunday, the WHO Regional Office for Africa said that a team of 35 experts from the WHO and the Congolese Ministry of Health had arrived in Bunia, the capital of Ituri province, along with 7 tons of emergency medical supplies and equipment.

possible wider spread. It said the patient had visited Ituri and that other suspected cases have also been reported in North Kivu province, which is one of Congo’s most populous and borders Ituri.

On Sunday the rebel government of Goma, eastern Congo’s largest city, said in a statement that the first confirmed case of Ebola was detected in the city

The infected person traveled from Ituri province and was currently under isolation, the statement said. Goma was the site of a rapid rebel offensive in early 2025, and the conflict between the Con-

golese armed forces and the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel paramilitary group has displaced hundreds of thousands.

Ebola is highly contagious and can be contracted via bodily fluids such as vomit, blood or semen. The disease it causes is rare, but severe and often fatal.

WHO’s emergency declaration is meant to spur donor agencies and countries into action. By WHO’s standards, it shows the event is serious, there is a risk of international spread and it requires a coordinated international response.

In a separate statement

4 crew members eject safely after 2 Navy jets crash during air show

BY REBECCA BOONE and MATTHEW BROWN Associated Press

BOISE, Idaho All four crew members ejected safely after two Navy jets collided and crashed on Sunday during an air show at the Mountain Home Air Force Base in western Idaho, officials said.

The collision involved two U.S. Navy EA18-G Growlers from the Electronic Attack Squadron 129 in Whidbey Island, Washington, said Cmdr Amelia Umayam, spokesperson for Naval Air Forces, U.S Pacific Fleet.

The aircraft were performing an aerial demonstration when the crash happened, Umayam said in a statement. The four crew members from both

jets safely ejected and the crash was under investigation, she said.

The crew members were in stable condition, base officials said.

Nobody at the military base was hurt, said Kim Sykes, marketing director with Silver Wings of Idaho, which helped to plan the air show

“Everyone is safe and I think that’s the most important thing,” Sykes said.

The base said in a social media post that it was locked down immediately following the incident. The remainder of the air show was canceled.

Videos posted online by spectators showed four parachutes opening in the sky as the aircraft plummet to the ground near the base about 50 miles south of Boise.

The EA-18G Growler is a variant of the F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jet with sophisticated electronic warfare systems.

Shane Ogden said he was filming the two jets as they came close together A video he captured shows the two aircraft appear to make contact and then spin in tandem as the crew members eject and their parachutes open.

The planes then fall together, exploding into a fireball upon impact as the crew members drop to the ground nearby

“I was just filming thinking they were going to split apart and that happened and I filmed the rest,” Ogden said in a text message.

He said he left soon after the crash because he did not want to get in the way of emergency responders.

The global response to previous declarations has been mixed. In 2024, when WHO declared mpox outbreaks in Congo and elsewhere in Africa a global emergency, experts at the time said that it did little to get supplies like diagnostic tests, medicines and vaccines to affected countries quickly Health authorities say the current outbreak, first confirmed on Friday, is caused by the Bundibugyo virus a rare variant of the Ebola disease that has no approved therapeutics or vaccines. Although more than 20 Ebola outbreaks have taken place in Congo and Uganda, this is only the third time that the Bundibugyo virus has been detected.

Congo accounts for all except two of the cases, both of which were reported in Uganda, WHO said.

Landry travelstoGreenland

La.governorsays goal is to develop relationships there

BY ALYSE PFEIL Staff writer

Gov.Jeff Landry and his wife, Sharon, arrived in Greenland on Sunday,reports from local media there show In avideo interview with DR, Denmark’snational broadcaster,Landry wastoldthat some Greenlanders are worried about his intentions and wondering whether he was there as part of President Donald Trump’sintermittent push for the U.S. to acquire the Danish territory.

dent publicly mused about theUnitedStates acquiring theisland. Greenland is a quasi-autonomous territory of Denmark; officials in both Greenland andDenmark reacted with alarm to Trump’s talk of atakeover.

Landry arrived in Nuuk, the capital city,a little after noonlocal time, accordingto DR Greenland’sminister of foreign affairs, Mute Egede, told the Danish outlet that Landry is part of a delegationwith Ken Howery, U.S. ambassadortoDenmark.

Landry is on the list of participants attending the Future Greenlandbusiness conference scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday.

ate with top officials.

However,onSunday,Danish television station TV 2, reported that Greenland Prime MinisterJens-Frederik Nielsen and Landry are set to meet Monday Aspokespersonfor Landry said Sundayshe could not immediately answer questionsabout the visit.

Landry’strip comes at a volatile political moment for Louisiana.

Thousandsflock to D.C. for America-themed prayer rally

Rededicate 250 eventheldon National Mall

BY TIFFANY STANLEY Associated Press

“I’m here to simply to build relationships and to look and listen and to learn and to see if there are opportunities to expand the relationship between Greenlandand the United States andDenmark,” Landry responded. “It’sa great day.I’m excited, Ireally am.”

Landry also told the outlet that he spoke Saturday night with Trump, who,according to Landry,told him, “Go over there and make as many friends as we can.” Trump named Landry special envoy to Greenland in December, as the presi-

“Future Greenland focuses on Greenland’srole in development. Acountry with ambitions for greater autonomyneedsastrong business sector,”the conference website says. In late January,Trump in social media postsannounced that, after ameeting with NATO SecretaryGeneral Mark Rutte,a “framework of afuture deal” hadbeen reached regarding Greenland and “the entire Arctic region ” It has been unclear what Landry’sdutiesasGreenland special envoy entail. He has said his goal is to developrelationships with Greenlanders, not to negoti-

On Saturday,voters soundly rejecteda raftofproposed constitutional amendments, four of which were backedbyLandry. Butconservatives also turned out in force to hand U.S. Rep.Julia Letlow adecisive lead in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate, where she has Trump’sendorsement and Landry’ssupport Democratic and progressive votersinrecent weeks have expressed angerata Republican effort toredraw Louisiana’scongressional map. Landrycanceled electionsfor the U.S. Houseafter theSupremeCourt ruled thecurrent districts unconstitutional. The new map will likely ax onemajorityBlack, Democratic district in favor of asafe GOPseat andwill be usedfor U.S Houseelectionsrescheduled for fall.

The LouisianaLegislature is trying to wrap up that redistrictingeffortbefore it adjourns on June 1.

Staff writer Tyler Bridges contributed to this report.

Senate parliamentariandeals blow to $1Bsecurityproposalfor WhiteHouse

BY MARYCLAREJALONICK and KEVIN FREKING Associated Press

WASHINGTON Aproposal to fund $1 billion in security additions for the White House campus and the president’snew ballroom fails to meet procedural rules, according to the Senate parliamentarian, dealing ablow to Republican planstoinclude it as part of abill to fund immigration enforcement agencies for the nextthree years. The parliamentarian’sruling, describedlate Saturday by Senate Democrats, said that funding for aproject as large and complex as President Donald Trump’smassive East Wing renovation is

too broad to be included in the narrow GOP budgetbill, which cannot be filibustered and only needsasimple majority to pass.

It’sunclear if Republicans will be abletoimmediately salvageany part of thebillion-dollar SecretService proposal, which would fund security forTrump’sballroom along with otherparts of the WhiteHouse,including anew visitorscreening center,additional training for agents andextra reinforcements for large events. Republicanssaid Saturday night that they are revising the legislationbased on the parliamentarian’sadvice RyanWrasse,aspokesman forSenateMajority Leader John Thune, wrote

in apost on Xthat “none of this is abnormal” during the complicated budget process that Republicans are using to tryand pass theimmigration enforcement and White House security money on a partisan basis. “Redraft. Refine. Resubmit,” Wrasse saidinthe post. Democrats have seized on thesecurity request, accusing Republicansof dedicating precious federal resources to the ballroom effort instead of focusing on helping Americanswith rising costs. Republicans have insisted that privatedonationswill be used to build the ballroom and thatthe federal dollars are focused just on much-needed securityenhancements.

WASHINGTON Thousands of people streamed onto the National Mall for a daylong prayer rally Sundaybilled as a“rededication of our country as One Nation under God.”

Against the backdrop of the WashingtonMonument, worship music blared from astage that made clear theevent’s Christian focus. Arched stained-glasswindows, setunderneath grand columns resemblinga federal building,depicted thenation’sfoundersalongside a whitecross.

Most speakers celebratedChristianity’s ties to American history,a blending of ideas that critics flaggedahead of the prayergatheringassupporting Christian nationalism.

Presi de nt Don al d Trump read apassage of Scripture in avideo shown at the rally Filmed in theOval Office, it was the same footage used during amarathon Bible-reading eventlast month. The verses from 2Chroniclesare oftencited by those who believe America was foundedas aChristian nation

“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humblethemselves,and pray, andseek my face, and turn from their wicked ways,” Trump read, “then will Ihear from heaven, andwill forgive theirsin, and will heal theirland.”

Other topRepublicans, including Defense SecretaryPete Hegseth, Secretary of State MarcoRubio and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Benton,were alsoonthe schedule as part of the celebrations this year marking 250 years of U.S. independence.

Only onename on the Rededicate250 program was not Christian. Most were among Trump’s longtime evangelical supporters, including Paula White-Cainofthe White House Faith Office and evangelist Franklin Graham of Samaritan’sPurse.

Ukraineconducts dronestrikes on Russia

BY SAMYAKULLAB Associated Press

KYIV,Ukraine One of Ukraine’slargestdrone strikes on Russia killed at least four people, including three near Moscow,and wounded adozen others,local authoritiessaidSunday. Debris fell on Russia’slargest airport without causing damage.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy con-

firmed thedrone strikes, saying that they were“entirely justified.” Russia has repeatedly launched similar attacksonUkraine’s capital and other cities duringthe war, andanexpert said thatthe strikes appearedtoberetaliation for recent Russian attacks on Kyiv Russian drone strikes on Ukraineovernightwounded eight people, Ukrainian authorities said.

In Ukraine’sstrikeson Russia, awoman waskilled after adrone hit her home in Khimki, aRussian city just northwest of Moscow, and two men died in thevillage of Pogorelki, whichis 6miles north of thecapital, according to local Gov.Andrei Vorobyev Ukrainian drones had also damagedunspecified “infrastructure”and several high-rise buildings, Vorobyev said on social media.

One man was also killed after adronestruck atruck in the Belgorod region, whichborders Ukraine, according to local authorities. In Moscow itself, at least 12 people werewounded in the nighttime strike,mostly near theentrancetothe city’s oilrefinery, Mayor SergeiSobyanin reported. Sobyanin reported that the “technology” of the refinery hadn’tbeen damaged.

“Weare deeply concerned that what is really being rededicatedisa nationtoa very narrowand ideological part of the Christianfaith that betraysour nation’s fundamental commitment to religious freedom,” said the Rev.AdamRussellTaylor, a Baptist minister who leads the progressive Christian organizationSojourners.

The conservative Christian lineup featured guests who often argue that the UnitedStates wasfounded as aChristian nation, anarrative disputed by many historians and other religious traditions.

Rabbi Jonah Dov Pesner, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, noted the religious diversity of early America, including Jews, Muslims and Indigenous people. “I want to shine alight on America’s history as anationthatwelcomes, celebrates, and protects people of all faiths and thoseofnofaith,” Pesner said.

Many in thecrowdwore Trump hats and patriotic colors, joining the festivities under asweltering sun.

“It’sall about Jesus,” said DennySmith,72, of Rhode Island, whorented amotor-

ized scooter to traverse the National Mall.

Retha Bond, 58 and from southern Illinois, also heard Trump speak not far away on Jan. 6, 2021. She said she did not join the protesters who rioted later that day at the Capitol but hasremaineda steadfast Trumpsupporter

“I’m notsayingTrump is the savior,” Bond said. She addedthat“thisisone of themostimportantthings that could be going on in the world, for us to rededicate our nation back to God.” At least one event speaker mentioned the late conservative activist Charlie Kirk from the stage. Kirk’sactivism hasbeen apowerful example for Alessandra Seawright, 15, of Santa Fe, New Mexico, who came to Rededicate 250 with her mother

“I think we just need more of this in ourcountry,and we just need to share the word of the Lord,” she said. “Welove going to events like this.” They also attended Kirk’s memorial service,which mixedChristian worship andpolitical messages. Events likethese, Seawright said, help her feel less alone in her conservative Christian beliefs.

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BY MATTHEW ALBRIGHT Staff writer

Jamie Davis and Gary Crockett will face each other in a runoff election for the Democratic Party primary on June 27 after competition for second place went down to the wire in Saturday night’s elections.

Davis

Davis, a corn, soybean and cotton farmer in northeast Louisiana who has the state Democratic Party endorsement, was the clear front-runner, winning 48% of the vote. Crockett, a Navy veteran and New Orleans business owner, got 26% of the vote — passing up Nick Albares by only 284 votes. Albares is a policy analyst in New Orleans who was backed by his former boss, ex-Gov John Bel Edwards.

Crockett and Albares ran so close to each other that, by late Saturday night, Albares was ahead by a few hundred votes with almost all ballots counted. But Caddo Parish was delayed in releasing the results of early voting until after midnight. When the results came in, Crockett pulled ahead of Albares, claiming the second spot in the runoff.

The winner of the June 27 follow-up election will compete in November elections against whoever wins the Republican runoff election, U.S. Rep Julia Letlow or state Treasurer John Fleming Incumbent Sen. Bill Cassidy came in third place in that race and was eliminated from contention.

Change of venue

The Redwolf Brass Band performs Sunday at Bayou Boogaloo at The Broadside in New Orleans. In its 20th year, the three-day music event moved from its berth overlooking Bayou St. John. As its popularity has grown, the surrounding areas were no longer ideal. This year’s event split the difference with most music being performed at The Broadside, while some performances had a smaller spot on the bayou at The Pitot House.

STAFF PHOTOS By ENAN CHEDIAK

CASSIDY

Continued from page 1A

Breaking down the loss

In his final race, Cassidy had to run in a closed Republican primary created by Gov Jeff Landry that seemed designed to hamstring Cassidy Under the new rules, registered Democrats who had traditionally voted for Republicans could not vote for him unless they changed their party registration to no party or Republican.

Throughout the campaign, Cassidy touted his ability to work with Trump conservatives, saying the president had signed four pieces of his legislation into law and noting that Robert F. Kennedy Jr wouldn’t have been confirmed as health secretary without his support

At the same time, Cassidy appealed to moderates by saying he knew how to work with Democrats to deliver money for Louisiana.

In trying to thread the needle between the two camps of voters, Cassidy fell short, winning only 24.8% of the vote, compared to 44.8% for Letlow and 28.2% for Fleming. Mark Spencer, who called himself a “guns and Bible conservative,” won 2% of the vote.

Conservatives didn’t think Cassidy was conservative enough.

“Cassidy betrayed Trump,” said a voter named Judy on Saturday outside a polling station at a New Orleans fire station. “I voted for Letlow.”

Cassidy openly appealed to Democrats to switch their registration. But only 7,488 Democrats did so after Feb. 1. That was 1.8% of the 401,118 people who voted in the Republican primary

“Bill obviously got caught in a vise trying to appeal to Trump voters when it was pretty apparent that he was not supported

by Trump and trying to appease more moderate voters who were upset by his vote for Kennedy That created the scenario that played out yesterday that he didn’t make the cut,” said Jay Dardenne, who preceded Cassidy in the state Senate.

Cassidy didn’t respond to an interview request.

John Couvillon, a Baton Rouge pollster who conducted surveys for Fleming, said Cassidy performed well in moderate Republican parishes: East Baton Rouge, Jefferson and Orleans.

But Letlow smoked him on the Interstate 12 corridor and in the parishes along Interstate 10 west of Baton Rouge.

“The more Republican the region, the worse off Cassidy did,” Chervenak said.

20 years in politics, undone

Cassidy, 68, is a Baton Rouge native who earned undergraduate and medical school degrees from LSU and became a liver specialist at the capital city’s charity hospital.

He won election to the state Senate in 2006 and then climbed the political ladder by winning three terms in the U.S. House, then Senate victories in 2014 and 2020.

Throughout his 12 years in the Senate, Cassidy has been known as a policy wonk who would rather study how to reduce healthcare costs than analyze how to play the political angles to ensure that he benefited from a big decision.

Reflective of that, Cassidy preferred to be known as “Dr. Cassidy” rather than “Sen. Cassidy.”

To be sure, he could take the steps needed to win an election.

He pounded then-Sen. Mary Landrieu, a Democrat, in the 2014 election for having voted for President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act five years earlier

But as Couvillon noted, Cas-

sidy received his comeuppance this year from Letlow for his 2021 vote to convict Trump.

“It was the one vote that people would not forget in a Republican primary contest,” Couvillon said. Immediately after that vote, Cassidy said he had grown angry at how Trump “lied” about claiming he had won the 2020

“It was the one vote that people would not forget in a Republican primary contest.”

JOHN COUVILLON, Baton Rouge pollster

election against Joe Biden. The senator added that the evidence showed clearly that Trump had incited the attack on the Capitol Cassidy immediately faced blowback in Louisiana as the state Republican Party censured him But, he told reporters, he thought that time would heal the political wounds by 2026.

“He had a comfortable six years ahead of him,” Dardenne said. “It was almost like he decided, ‘I’m going to do what I really believe.’ He didn’t think Trump would win a second term. That was obviously a miscalculation.”

Trying to win his way back

After Trump returned to the White House in 2025, Cassidy did everything he could to get back into the president’s good graces, to have a good working relationship with the White House and to get things done for Louisiana, according to people close to him.

Cassidy tried to convince voters in Louisiana that he was succeeding.

Cassidy’s Senate office even sent out news releases when he merely appeared at events with Trump. By the beginning of 2026, however, private polls showed

that many more voters viewed him negatively than positively

That’s typically a death knell in political races.

A key date that came and went was Jan. 14. That was the deadline for Cassidy to register as a political independent, which would have enabled him to bypass the party primaries and run in the November general election against the Republican and Democratic candidates.

Trump endorsed Letlow on Jan. 17. Cassidy was stuck running as a Republican.

“That was not coincidental timing,” Dardenne said, noting that Cassidy said at the time that he thought Trump would steer clear of his race.

As the qualifying period approached in February, Cassidy’s chances looked so iffy in political circles that speculation abounded that he would forgo his reelection.

“Unless you’re God’s perfect idiot, the result was predictable,” U.S. Sen. John Kennedy said on Sunday.

“Everybody knew a year ago that Bill was in trouble. The president endorsing Congresswoman Letlow was the icing on the cake. I respect him for running anyway.” On election night at Boudreaux’s Catering in Baton Rouge, the hordes of people who had been with Cassidy on his triumphal nights in 2014 and 2020 were gone.

Only four elected officials were spotted: Senate President Cameron Henry, R-Metairie; Rep. Foy Gadberry, R-West Monroe; Rep. Laura Ventrella, R-Greenwell Springs; and Randy Delatte, Livingston Parish’s president.

Food on a buffet table was mostly uneaten.

A bartender offering glasses of celebratory Champagne from “Team Cassidy” was asked if she had many takers.

“Only a few,” she said. “Only a few.”

The audience

to Al

Jackson at The Broadside.

LEFT: Jay Dufour kicks off the third day of music Sunday at The Broadside.

Omni headquarters hotel for the Ernest N. Morial ConventionCenternext to the Hilton are seeking city approval for the $600 million project. Convention Center and local tourism officials have saidthe city needs anew high-riseluxury hotelfor theConvention Center to remaincompetitive with Nashville, Tennessee; Birmingham,Alabama; and other Southern cities taking an ever-largershareofthe lucrative meeting and convention business.

For ahalf century,the Hilton has been the closestthing to a headquarters, offering meeting planners large room blocks and proximity to the ConventionCenter’sdownriver entrance.Piscola said he welcomes the competition —and the investment in the local market.

“A rising tide lifts all boats,” he said.

Modernizing

The third phase of therenovation will cover 10 floors and cost about $18million as contractors renovate guestrooms, bathrooms, parlor rooms, corridors, elevator lobbies and vending areas on floors four through 13, plus floor 29 in the hotel’soriginal tower.The work includes replacing floor,wall and ceiling finishes along with furniture and fixtures.

MURRILL

Continued from page1A

appellate level.And she has pushed conservative positions on issues from social media to thehistoric voting rights case before the U.S. Supreme Court.

But perhaps nowhere has felt the brunt of her efforts like New Orleans, where Murrill has emerged at the forefront of several Republican-backedefforts to overhaul local government.

Last month, Murrill secured criminalcharges against Sheriff Susan Hutson on the eve of her departure from office.And then, after tanglingfor weeks with New Orleans leaders over aRepublican-led effort to shrink thecity’scourts, Murrill sharply escalated that feud by threatening to remove the mayor,district attorney and abulk of the City Council from office last week if theydid not meet her demands. The letters were explosive. The recipients said they wouldnot back down Some Republicans both publicly and privately questioned whether Murrill had overstepped.

“The attorney general is correct on the law,” said Laura Cannizzaro Rodrigue, aformer Orleans Parish prosecutor and Murrillally, on the social media site Xon her Bayou Mama Bears account. “That being said, is this battle strategic?” Rodrigue addedthat a race for acombined clerk of court seat that caused the scuffle would eventually happen, and that “the net gain here for the AG is small and temporary.”

Murrill became attorney general three years ago as Landry,her predecessor, stepped into the governor’s office. Landry’scampaign pledge to “bend (New Orleans) to my will” had stirred anxiety among local officials of alarge-scale state takeover.But Landry,also a Republican, later showed a willingness to strike transactional alliances with Democratic local leaders, even as he has opposed some of them on issues like immigration and homelessness

Though she has collaborated with local officials on crime-fighting, Murrill’s removal threats sharpened agrowing feeling within political circles that thestate attorney general —rather than the Cajun in thegovernor’smansion —ispursuing the state’sboldest effort in years at reshaping New Orleans’ political leadership.

Ryan Berni, atop adviser to former Democratic Mayor Mitch Landrieu, was reminded this weekof amissive former Louisiana Gov.Earl Long leveledat then-state Attorney General Jack Gremillion in the 1960s as Gremillion protested the newly-adopted Voting Rights Act. “If you want to hide something from Jack

Piscola said thehotel is buildingrooms to meet thedemands of modern travelers.

“They’ve been stripping rooms down to concrete and building entirely new ones, including replacing many bathtubs with walk-in

Gremillion,” Long said,“put it in alaw book.”

“Sadly,Liz Murrill is worse, the most lawless attorney general in the nation,” Berni said. Murrill declinedmultiple requests to be interviewed for this story and her spokesperson did not respond to alistofemailed questions. Last week, arecallpetition was filed against herinBaton Rouge

“When youfinally hold criminals andcorruptelected officials accountable, people get uncomfortable,” she said ofthat effort in a statement.

NewOrleans clashes

Last month’sSupreme Court rulinginthe Voting Rights Actcase, Louisianav Callais, declaredthe state’s congressional mapanillegal racial gerrymander.Murrill received praise from national Republicans as thedecision rekindled redistricting wars across the country

“Nogroup of electedofficials make abigger impact than Republican AGs,” said AdamPiper,executivedirector of thenationalRepublican Attorneys General Association.“RAGA is proud to have leaders like Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill among our ranks.”

The indictment of Hutson landed thesameafternoon at New Orleans’criminal courthouse.

Analysts say that prosecution could face challenges, givenpotential negativeattitudes among prospective jurorstowarda Republican official prosecuting alocal Democratic leader.Public corruption prosecutions are commoninNew Orleans’ political history,but have historically been the domain of the local U.S.attorney. Federal courtdraws jurors from a13-parish district rather than from New Orleansalone.

Hutson’scharges are among abevyofcorruption indictmentsMurrill has secured, including against a Baton Rouge council memberand the mayor of Winnsboro,bothDemocrats. Some political analysts say her record of primarilyindicting Democratic public officials raises eyebrows.

“This attorney generalhas chosen to be an activist criminal prosecutor,” saidRobert Collins, aprofessor of public policyand urban studies at DillardUniversity. “And that’s caused some people to question …whether this is theoffice weaponizingits powertotarget Democrats for political purposes.”

Murrill’sletters last week werenot her first suchwarnings to New Orleansleaders. Late last year,she threatened local officials with criminal charges if they did not change aNew Orleans Police Departmentban on honoring federal immigration detainers

This spring, state Republicans went on the offensiveagainst New Orleans’ courtsinthe ongoing legis-

showers,”hesaid. “People want ahigh levelofdesign andtofeel comfortable in their rooms, and they want the latest technology, so we’re installing smart TVs, updated locks and new Wi-Fi infrastructure.

lativesession,whereLandry backed abilltodissolvethe city’scriminalcourtclerkship and shift itsresponsibilities beneaththe separate civil clerk’soffice. Supporterscalledita needed reform in theonly Louisiana parish with separate civiland criminal legal systems, though the courts themselveswill remain separatedunder the bill.

Opponentscalled the measure retaliationagainst Calvin Duncan, aformer jailhouselawyer who won the criminal clerkship in alandslide last falldespite Murrill’sopposition.She sent cease-and-desist letters to thecampaign, ordering Duncan —who spent decades in prisonuntil ajudge ruled him innocentofamurder thatlandedhim there —to stopcalling himself “exonerated.” Landrysignedthe bill eliminating Duncan’sjob four days before he was to takeoffice.

Moreno andDistrictAttorney Jason Williams responded by asking the City Council to call aspecial election for the newly-merged clerkseat, arguing that the legislation created anew position thatvoters must fill. The council voted to hold the election lastMonday.Murrill’sletterscame two days later

“Onceshe picks aside, she fights at all costs,evenifit loses her ground in the long run,” Morenosaidinamessage the day beforeshe received Murrill’sletter.“And whether youagreewith her or not, she approaches every issue with intensity.”

Murrill defended theletters in an interviewFriday withWWL Radio host Newell Normand, the former Jefferson Parish sheriff. She saidshe called Moreno and City Council members multiple times ahead of last Monday’smeeting, asking them to hold offuntil the courts resolved thedispute.

“Now allofasudden, I’m the personwho hasblown up their world,”she said. “They blew up theirown world. They did it on purpose.”

“They knew it was wrong, they acknowledged that it was wrong. …They said they were going to do it anyway,” Murrill said. “And they knewthatI would be compelledtoact,because thelaw requiresmetodo something when they defy an act of the Legislature and rewritethe law themselves.”

‘Preparedfor adeposition’

For decades,state at-

Much of the workhas been scheduled during the summer, when fewer visitors come to town, to avoid disruption and loss of income. The hotel’sroom count will increase by two by the end of the

torneysgeneral largely stayedinthe lanes of defending state laws, issuing legalopinions andstepping in when localprosecutors recused themselves from criminal matters. The playbook wielded by Murrill emerged from Republican attorneysgeneral of the 2010s, including Texas’Ken Paxton and Murrill’spredecessor in Louisiana.

Landry broadened theoffice’spurview in his eightyear tenure, litigating culture-war issues, such as limiting access to children’s bookswithsexualcontent, and rebranding theoffice’s investigative division, the Louisiana Bureau of Investigation. He clashed with officials in NewOrleans, at onepoint threatening to withhold funding over city leaders’support for abortion access. Murrill “understands the playbook better than me,” Landry saidinanOctober interview

“She enters every public appearance like she has prepared for adeposition,” saidMary-Patricia Wray,a Baton Rouge-based political consultant andlobbyist “If shesayssomething that seems radical or outrageous or extreme, youcan betthat shehas considered that before she’ssaid it.”

National scope

Political insiderssay Murrillenjoyscertain advantagesLandry lacked as attorney general.

She hasaRepublican ally in thegovernor’smansion, whereas Landry spent time taking shots at policies of Democratic former Gov JohnBel Edwards. Murrill also faces afriendlierjudicial landscapethanLandry did, legal scholarssay,as both the New Orleans-based U.S.5th Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme

summer as workers convert unused space from an old lounge into twonew suites, one with river viewsand theother overlooking the city.The hotel’sdesign team also is creating one Mardi Grasthemed suiteonthe hotel’s 10th floor

The hotel will also update existing accessible rooms to meet the latest Americans with Disabilities Act guidelines.

The Hilton’sthree-year renovation is part of alarger series of improvements. Workers renovatedthe hotel’s meeting spaces in 2016, 2017 and 2018 and made improvements to the lobby in 2023. The hotel also recently opened anew “grab-andgo” coffee shop.

In addition to the $50 million room renovations, another$10 million will pay forthe modernization of the hotel’selevators, oneofits pools, some common spaces and otherwork, Piscolasaid. The elevator work will continue over the next three years.

Piscolasaidthe hotel’sowner— Virginia-based real estate investment trust Park Hotels &Resorts —isinvesting in NewOrleans hospitality forthe long haul.

“Wehit 50 years old next year, and we’re not going anywhere,” he said. “We’re an important piece of hospitality infrastructure in the city.”

EmailRich Collins at rich. collins@theadvocate.com.

Court haveshifted rightward. At the center of many of Murrill’slegal victories is hersolicitor general —a positionLandry created for herwhenhewas attorney general —named Benjamin Aguiñaga, who has alaw degree from LSUbut is nota Louisiana Bar Association member.Hehas gainedattention by arguingseveral of theoffice’scases before the U.S. Supreme Court. Murill andAguiñaga have notenjoyed uniform success there. Most recently, the Supreme Court paused a5th Circuit ruling they securedwhichbarred abortionpills frombeing mailed intoLouisiana. Theappellate court’sdecision had raised eyebrows: Sarah Isgur,aJustice Department lawyer in the first Trump administration, called the decision “Bonkers Townadjacent” if not“full Bonkers Town.”

Thehigh court’sjustices have at timesdirectly criticizedMurrill’soffice, most notably during 2024 arguments over asocial media case, Murthy v. Missouri. “I have such aproblem with your brief,” JusticeSonia Sotomayor,anappointee of President Barack Obama, told Aguiñaga. The justices ruledagainst Louisiana and Missouri in that case, 6-3. But they have handed Aguiñaga and his boss victoriesinarguably more significantones. In Callais, Aguiñaga argued to the court last fall that Section 2ofthe Voting Rights Act wasunconstitutional in part because it “placed states in impossible situationswhere theonly sure demand is more racial discrimination.” Thecourt agreed seven months later in its landmark 6-3ruling. EmailJames Finn at jfinn@theadvocate.com.

Notice is hereby givenpursuant to Article7,Section 23(C)ofthe LouisianaConstitutionand La R.S. 47:1705(B) that apublichearing of theAssessmentDistrict in St. TammanyParishwill be held at itsregular meetingplace in Room 1110 of theSt.TammanyParish JusticeCenter, locatedat701 N. Columbia Street, Covington, LA on Thursday,June18th, 2026 at 11:00 a.m. to consider levyingadditional or increased millagerates without furthervoter approval or adopting theadjustedmillage ratesafter reassessment androlling forwardto ratesnot to exceed theprior year’s maximum. Theestimated amountof taxrevenuestobecollected in the next year from theincreased millage is $7,879,420.37, andthe amountof increaseintaxes attributable to the millageincreaseis$1,551,110.28

LA

Behavioral hospital planned for Lacombe Company will renovate former heart facility

BY WILLIE SWETT Staff writer

A Texas healthcare company

plans to open a 66-bed hospital facility at a medical complex in Lacombe next year, offering inpatient and outpatient behavioral healthcare for northshore residents. The behavioral hospital run by Oceans Healthcare will care for adult patients with acute psychiatric issues like major depression or psychosis, according to Darryl Doise, the company’s chief development officer

Hancock Whitney buys

One Fla. Bank

Lender with N.O. presence moves into Orlando market

BY RICH COLLINS Staff writer

Hancock Whitney Bank is buying Orlando-based One Florida Bank, marking its entry into a new central Florida market.

In a Friday announcement, Hancock Whitney Corp., the Gulfport, Mississippi-based bank’s parent company, announced it was purchasing OFB Bancshares, parent company of One Florida Bank, in an all-cash transaction.

Though OFB, with a little more than $2.1 billion in assets, is much smaller than Hancock Whitney a regional lender with assets of more than $35 billion, the deal will give the Gulfport bank a presence in a large, rapidly growing area.

“This transaction represents a significant step in our long-term growth strategy, expanding our footprint into one of the most dynamic and high-growth markets in the country,” said John M Hairston, president and CEO of Hancock Whitney in a statement.

Hairston said Orlando offers attractive demographics and strong economic fundamentals as the bank adds to its presence in central Florida, which includes locations in greater Tampa, Lakeland and The Villages One Florida Bank operates five financial centers in greater Orlando and one in Chipley, a small town along Interstate 10 north of Panama City.

Rick Pullum, president and CEO of One Florida Bank, said the deal with Hancock Whitney will provide “access to broader resources, expanded capabilities, and a larger platform for growth.” Hancock Whitney was founded in 1899 as Hancock County Bank in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. It acquired its New Orleans-based rival Whitney Bank in 2011 and now is the largest bank headquartered in the region.

The bank reports more than $35 billion in assets, $29 billion in deposits and about 3,600 employees. Roughly a third are located in greater New Orleans, and about half of that team works in the Hancock Whitney Center on Poydras Street. As of June 30, the most recent date for which figures are available, Hancock Whitney ranked as the second-largest bank in Louisiana, with a nearly 13% share of the market, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. It has less than 6% of the market in Mississippi and is that state’s sixth-largest bank. Last month, the bank announced plans to open a new branch in a

The complex, owned by Ochsner is located off La. 434 in Lacombe near Interstate 12, and is the former home of the Lacombe Heart Hospital. The new hospital facility will require renovations of part of the complex, which will take be-

tween a year and 14 months, Doise said.

In addition to the 66 beds for inpatient services, Doise said the hospital will likely have around five group rooms for intensive outpatient care, which he said would mean they could treat as many as 50 people for outpatient services at one time.

Oceans Healthcare has 13 other hospitals around the state.

“Something we think a lot about here is bringing care to patients so they’re closer to home,” Doise said. The new hospital will fill a vacancy at the Ochsner Northshore Medical Complex that was created after a skilled nursing facility and a long-term acute care facility closed about a year ago, according to Alisha Lacour, CEO of Ochsner for the northshore and Mississippi Gulf Coast region. In addition to the new behavioral hospital, the Ochsner complex will continue to have an inpatient re-

hab unit, Lacour said. The healthcare company also has offices and conference space at the complex. Nick Richard, the director of the regional chapter of the National Alliance for Mental Illness, said that having a new behavioral hospital in St. Tammany is valuable to both patients and their families, who sometimes have to travel hours to other cities to visit

BOUNTIFUL BUBBLES

BY MARTHA SANCHEZ Staff writer

The only way Susan Gibbs believes she can save the SS United States is by sinking it to the bottom of the sea. The massive ocean liner, which once ferried celebrities across the Atlantic Ocean, could soon be towed 20 miles off the coast of Destin, Florida, to meet its fate. The controversial endeavor will transform the

Woman pleads guilty in fatal pursuit crash

BY MISSY WILKINSON Staff writer

A woman who killed two teen girls in a crash while fleeing police after allegedly shoplifting at Lakeside Shopping Center in Metairie pleaded guilty May 8, according to the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s Office.

Joneaka Smooth, 32, was scheduled to head to jury trial May 11 on a count of attempted manslaughter, a count of obstruction of justice and two counts of manslaughter in the deaths of Semaj Morris and Giselle Smith, two 17-year-old West Jefferson High School students. Smooth pleaded guilty as

charged on all counts at a hearing before the surviving victim and family members.

“This case represents the devastating consequences that reckless decisions and disregard for human life can have on families and an entire community,” the District Attorney’s Office said in a statement Friday “Two young women with bright futures lost their lives in an instant, and another victim survived carrying trauma that will last far beyond this courtroom.”

Smooth already had multiple shoplifting convictions in Jefferson Parish when police say she and two other women stole clothes by the armload from a Gap Kids at the Lake-

side Shopping Center on Dec. 11, 2024. The Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office said Smooth and her alleged coconspirators, Lisa Herring and Sherry Foucha, stole merchandise from multiple stores to resell for profit.

About 7:39 p.m., an off-duty Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office deputy spotted the trio fleeing to the parking lot and radioed a description to the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office, which confirmed a theft had been reported.

Smooth led JPSO deputies on a high-speed chase down Interstate 10 toward New Orleans. Deputies lost sight of the SUV and abandoned the chase once they reached the parish line. But

MICHAEL JOHNSON

STAFF PHOTO By

Shaquille O’Neal leads LSU graduates in a chant Saturday after giving a speech during commencement for the College of Human Sciences and Education at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center, where O’Neal was awarded his fifth degree.

Shaq earns master’s degree from LSU

BY BLAKE PATERSON Staff writer

Shaquille O’Neal received a master’s degree from LSU on Saturday and took the opportunity to poke fun at his longtime frenemy Charles Barkley Before crossing the stage at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center to pick up his diploma, the former LSU basketball player and fourtime NBA champion was introduced by the emcee as Shaquille “I Hate Charles Barkley” O’Neal.

O’Neal and Barkley had a famous brawl on the court during their time in the NBA but have since become friends and can be found ribbing each other as analysts on “Inside the NBA” on ESPN.

O’Neal earned his master’s degree from the College of Human Sciences and Education, where he wrote a thesis examining mentorship through the lens of Homer’s epic poem “The Odyssey.” In a speech at Saturday’s ceremony, O’Neal told graduates to “never

LEGACY

Florida, made an offer. They had been working for decades to build an artificial reef program and transform the Gulf region into an international diving destination

The county is now spending $13 million to build an SS United States museum on land and prepare the ship to be sunk as early as this summer Leaders hope the attractions will draw more visitors from Louisiana and around the country to Destin and Fort Walton Beach. But their plan is facing outcry from some veterans and preservationists who are scrambling to stop the ship from vanishing beneath the waves. One prominent group called the SS United States Preservation Foundation is criticizing the plan’s timing just before the country’s 250th anniversary and has started an opposition campaign urging county leaders to “rethink the sink.”

“It’s not too late to keep a local decision from becoming a national disgrace,” one recent campaign video warned.

stop learning” — and never stop buying his products.

“Continue to strive, continue to learn, continue to have fun and continue to eat SHAQ-A-LICIOUS gummies at your local 7-Eleven,”

O’Neal said.

For “all the old people,” O’Neal added, “Icy Hot man up,” referring to his catchphrase for the over-the-counter topical pain relief medicine

He told graduates that before they can succeed, they must first learn how to fail. “In the words of the great Shaquille O’Neal,” he said, “use failure as motivation.”

He also implored graduates to be kind and humble and to stay curious about the world, sneaking in another jab at Barkley

“This is a weird world we live in.

One day, Charles Barkley was fat.

The next day, he’s skinny I don’t know what happened, but this world is crazy,” he said.

His final advice: “Celebrate how far you’ve come but keep striving for what’s ahead.”

Smooth continued speeding and “weaving aggressively through traffic lanes,” the District Attorney’s Office said.

When she exited the highway at St. Bernard Avenue, she failed to negotiate a turn, mounted the median and sent the SUV airborne. It crashed into a vehicle carrying three young women as they drove north on St. Bernard Avenue.

“The impact tore the roof from the victims’ vehicle from the windshield toward the rear window causing catastrophic injuries and killing two of the occupants,” the District Attorney’s Office statement read Smith died at the scene,

and Morris died the following day Smith’s older sister suffered critical injuries. All three suspects fled on foot, but Smooth surrendered the next day Foucha and Herring each face two theft charges and a multioffender theft charge in Jefferson Parish, which could carry enhanced penalties.

Judge Tracey FlemingsDavillier is scheduled to sentence Smooth on June 9. Each manslaughter conviction carries a sentence of up to 40 years, a penalty that Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams is seeking to enhance through a habitual offender filing. Smooth could ultimately face a life sentence.

LSU graduates largest class over two days

BY HALEY MILLER Staff writer

LSU graduated its largest class to date across Friday and Saturday, with more than 5,700 degrees awarded during its spring commencement ceremonies.

“This record-setting class represents more than an important milestone for LSU,” Chancellor Jim Dalton said in a release. “These graduates will serve communities, strengthen industries, drive discovery, and help move Louisiana forward for generations to come.”

The Pete Maravich Assembly Center, Maddox Fieldhouse and Student Union Theater were seas of purple and gold as thousands of students from 12 schools walked the stage over the course of the two days of ceremonies. They crossed a lavender carpet as their names were read out and families and friends cheered from the audience.

LSU saw increases in the number of degrees awarded across the board for each demographic compared to spring 2025.

Here are some highlights provided the LSU Office of Data and Strategic Analytics: n 5,710 total degrees (spring 2025: 5,428) n 4,215 bachelor’s degrees (spring 2025:

4,073) n 1,069 master’s degrees (spring 2025: 907)

n 3,428 female graduates (spring 2025: 3,237)

n 2,282 male graduates (spring 2025: 2,191) n 871 degrees awarded to Black students (spring 2025: 736)

n 525 degrees awarded to Hispanic students (spring 2025: 449)

n 3,482 in-state graduates (spring 2025: 3,369)

n 2,002 out-of-state graduates (spring 2025: 1,864) Outside of Louisiana, the state with the greatest number of graduates in the class was Texas, with 533. Florida was a distant second, with 170 students awarded degrees this spring, followed by California, Georgia and Maryland. Foreign countries with the most LSU graduates were Nigeria, China and Honduras. The record-breaking graduating class reflects LSU’s soaring enrollment and application numbers. More than 62,000 potential incoming freshmen applied this cycle, according to institutional data, compared to 18,122 in 2016.

University officials speculated that the draw of the SEC and the prestige of a flagship university might be pulling more students, particularly out-

ton play piano in the ballroom.

Continued from page 1B

St. Tammany, Richard said. A certificate is issued to someone when they are considered a danger to themselves or others and need to be sent to a treatment facility like the one planned for Lacombe.

“Being able to have that dead square in the middle of our parish, I think it’s awesome I’m always excited about having access to more services,” Richard said.

Other behavioral hospitals on the northshore include Northlake Behavioral Health Hospital in Mandeville, Lakeview Behavioral Health in Covington, Beacon Behavioral Health in Lacombe and Covington Behavioral Health.

Oceans also has a 36bed hospital in Hammond, which is for adult and juvenile patients, Doise said.

Oceans Healthcare said it did not have an estimated cost for the renovations.

of-state applicants, to Baton Rouge.

“If they’re not from the state or from the region, they see us on ESPN on a Saturday night,” LSU Vice President for Enrollment Management Emmett Brown said in an interview in February LSU leaders have made subtle moves to heighten the selectivity of the institution and balance increasingly strained resources as the campus population swells. The LSU Board of Supervisors voted in February to reinstate the standardized test score requirement at the main campus in Baton Rouge after making scores optional during the COVID-19 pandemic. Dalton said at the time there would be no minimum score to gain admission, but the information would be used as “one component of our comprehensive evaluation of students.”

In December, the university broke ground on the $200 million South Quad freshman dorm project to bring 1,266 additional beds to campus.

LSU system President Wade Rousse recently told the Louisiana Illuminator the flagship may have to consider an enrollment cap in the coming years as demand for parking and housing grows.

flights grew popular The ship bounced between buyers until the conservancy sold it to Okaloosa County, which argued the steep cost of docking the vessel meant sinking it was the only way to save it from a scrapyard.

“It certainly made more sense than having her turned into razor blades,” said Warren Jones, who serves on the conservancy’s board.

The county lugged the vessel to Mobile, Alabama, where it is temporarily docked.

‘The people are watching’

Opponents say sinking the SS United States will erase history, and they also fear the ship could leach toxins into the ecosystem once it sits below the waves They are asking for federal intervention to keep the ship above water and have suggested turning it into a mental health care and job training site for veterans.

Email Willie Swett at willie.swett@ theadvocate.com.

Continued from page 1B

suburb of Jackson, Mississippi, one of only a dozen or so of its nearly 200 locations north of Interstate 20. The rest hug the Gulf Coast in five states from Texas to Florida. In an interview last year, Hancock Whitney’s greater New Orleans regional director, Liz Hefler, said the bank plans to grow by acquisition and continues to evaluate potential transactions. Last year, the bank acquired the Tampa, Florida-based wealth management firm Sabal Trust Co. This latest acquisition comes as the regional banking industry prepares for competition from MC Bank, a small lender founded in Morgan City that’s poised for growth after an acquisition from veteran Louisiana banker Daryl Byrd and a team of investors. Byrd, who built IberiaBank into a regional powerhouse, has plans to grow MC Bank by acquisition as well. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2026 if approved by regulators and shareholders.

tivist whose battle over groundwater pollution became a Hollywood hit two decades ago, recently wrote in capital letters on social media. “Clean your ship up before you sink her.”

Continued from page 1B LOTTERY SATURDAY, MAY 16, 2026

Debates about how to balance tourism with preservation are common across the fast-growing Gulf Coast. But the story of the ship, which has come to symbolize patriotic triumph, is also a sign of the country’s increasing divide over how to honor its past.

‘The extraordinary story’

If all goes to the county’s plan, the vessel will become the world’s largest artificial reef and bring millions of tourism dollars to the

region each year Scientists will study it, and dive shops and fishing charters will lead excursions there.

“Not a day goes by that we don’t get asked questions about the vessel and our visions for her as a reef,” said Jennifer Adams, the county’s tourism director “We’re ready to deploy her as soon as we possibly can.”

The conservancy is gathering artifacts from the ship, including passengers’ letters and engineers’ logs, to display in the future museum on the shores of Destin and Fort Walton Beach. The group is also planning immersive displays that will simulate the experience of standing in the engine room as the ship blasts to sea, or watching legendary musician Duke Elling-

“The goal is certainly to tell the extraordinary story of this ship,” Gibbs said “But it’s also a story about our country and our past and our future.”

The ship first embarked in 1952, moving so fast that pounding waves blasted paint from its hull.

The vessel broke the trans-Atlantic speed record and still holds the title.

U.S. presidents Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, John Kennedy and Bill Clinton all sailed aboard it. So did Marlon Brando Walt Disney, Judy Garland and Marilyn Monroe. In 1963, the vessel even carried Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa.”

But after 17 years, the SS United States retired as trans-Atlantic

“Sinking this vessel is crazy,” said Carlos Camacho Jr cofounder of the nonprofit SS United States Preservation Foundation, who has written a letter voicing his opposition to President Donald Trump. “We have politicians saying, ‘it’s too expensive, it’s sink or scrap, there’s no other way.’ They’re wrong.”

The county insists it is cleaning the ship of all toxins and following rules set by the Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which are overseeing the project’s final approval. But the idea is still drawing attention from high-profile voices.

“The people are watching,” Erin Brockovich, the environmental ac-

The sinking is personal to Jones, who rode the ship to Europe with his family in 1961 He was just a boy but remembers the journey well the engines roaring to life in New York’s Hudson River, his hands gripping the deck railings in punishing winds, tossing and turning one night as the ship forged across the North Atlantic.

He later gave tours of the ship in Philadelphia, where one day, after the last crowd left, he wandered alone through the empty dining room and walked the ship’s long decks in silence.

Jones plans to be in Destin when the ship sinks, watching from a nearby boat.

“It’ll be emotional, there’s no question about it,” he said. “But I would not have wanted to see that ship just go to the scrapyard. To me, that would have been the ultimate disrespect.”

3: 8-7-9

4: 1-4-0-2

NewOrleans

Area Deaths

Jones, Mary

Riley, Steven NewOrleans Charbonnet

Riley, Steven

Littlejohn FH

Jones, Mary

Obituaries

Jones, Mary Ellen

Mary EllenJones,age 90, of NewOrleans, Louisiana, peacefully de‐parted this life on May5, 2026, surrounded by love andcherished memories Shewas alifelongresident, having attended Albert Wicker Elementary,An‐drew J. Bell Junior High, andJosephS.Clark Sr High School.Marydedi‐catedover30years of ser‐vice to theCityofNew Or‐leans, retiring as aSupervi‐sorfor theDepartmentof Finance/Bureau of the Treasury.She wasknown forher warm spirit,lovefor family,and joyful presence Shewas preceded in death by hermother, Mary Ellen DeCuire; sisters, Joycelyn Smith, LindaDeCuire, JuanitaOsaya,and Carolyn DeCuire; brothers,Leo De‐Cuireand Larry DeCuire; son, Karl Jones; grandson, Juan SmithSr.;and god‐son, BrianBallard Sr.Mary leaves to cherishher loving memory hersisters,Gail Ford andAnn Washington; children,Jacquelyn Robin‐son(Andre),Burnell Jones (Janet), Terese Jones, and BibianaJohnson (Ray‐mond); stepson, Bonnie Brown(Linda);grandchil‐dren,DaleJones (Schyan) JasmineWilliams(Alfred), Armand Johnson(Maci); great-grandchildren, Dale Yost,Kiera Jones, Kiara Jones, KendaleTheard, and KaitlynConor,JuanSmith

Jr., and EmoryWilliams; great-great-grandchild King Jones; alongwitha host of extended family membersand friendswho will forevertreasureher memory.A visitation will be held on Tuesday, May 19, 2026, at 10:00 a.m. fol‐lowed by Mass of Christian Burial beginning11:00 a.m. at St.Maria Goretti Church, 7300 CrowderBlvd.,New Orleans, LA 70127. Entomb‐ment Mt.OlivetCemetery andMausoleum.Profes‐sional Services Entrusted to:LittlejohnFuneral Home,Cal K. Johnson, Manager/ FuneralDirector. Info:504-940-0045.

Riley, Steven Edward

Steven Edward Riley, beloved son, brother, and friend, passedawaypeace‐fully at home in NewOr‐leans,LAonWednesday May 5, 2026, afterfacing multiplesclerosis with re‐markablecourage and grace.Hewas born on No‐vember5,1963, to EmileE Riley,Jr.,M.D.and Jacque‐lineCerfRileyinHeidel‐berg,Germany.Steven

grew up in NewOrleans alongside hisfoursiblings, buildingthe deep rootsin familyand community that would define hislife. He was aman whose gener‐ous spirit andquiet strengthtouched everyone fortunate enough to know him.Heattended St.Fran‐cis CabriniElementary School,HolyCross Middle School,and BrotherMartin HighSchool,where he truly cameintohis own. He car‐riedthose same qualities and attributes andcare withhim to Howard Univer‐sity, where he earned his BachelorofArtsinHistory Thoughthe progression of his illnessprevented Stevenfrompursuingthe Ph.D.,hehad dreamedof, hechanneled hisintellect, warmth, anddevotioninto something equallymean‐ingful— hisfamily. Steven was predeceasedbyhis beloved father,Emile E. Riley,Jr.,M.D andhis dear sister, DebraL.Riley. He is survivedbyhis mother JacquelineCerfRiley; brother,Wayne J. Riley, M.D.; sisters, Michelle Riley-Brown andMonique Riley Cyprian; sister-in-law, CharleneDewey Riley; brothers-in-law,Roy J. Cyprian,Jr.,and JamesE Brown; nephew,Brett R. Cyprian;and nieces,Syd‐ney V. Cyprian, Erin E. Riley, AlexisC.Rileyand SarahE Brown. He is also survived bya wide andcherished circleofcousins and friends,nearand far, whose livesweremade richerbyhis presence Family andfriends arein‐

vitedtoattend aMassof

Christian Burial honoring the life andlegacyof StevenE.RileyatBrother MartinHighSchool Chapel 4400 ElysianFieldsAve., New Orleans, LA on Tues‐day,May 19, 2026, at 12:00 p.m.Visitationat11:00 a.m. inthe Chapel.Interment Mount Olivet Cemetery 4000 Norman MayerAve., New Orleans, LA.Please signthe online guestbook atwww.charbonnetfuner alhome.com. In lieu of flowers, thefamilykindly requeststhatdonations be madetothe Steven Ed‐wardRileyScholarship Fund establishedinhis honor at BrotherMartin HighSchool https://www givecampus.com/ campaigns/30305/ donations/new?amt=500. 00 or by calling504-2846700, ext. 3212. Charbonnet Labat GlapionDirectors (504) 581-4411.

An In Memory Of”ad, is away to pay tributetoyourloved one.Thisremembrance is oftenprinted on theanniversary of aloved one’sdeath.Thedeadline is twodaysprior to the dayyou want your ad to appear TO PLACEAMEMORIALAD GO TO: obituaries.nola.com clicksubmit an obituaryand select create amemoriam.

Notbeing able to manage abudget just makes ourcountry weaker

Idon’tunderstand today’spolitical environment. It calls for the politician to do what is best for his/her constituents, but so often that means workingcontrary to the economic environment our state or country might be in. And it ignores necessary solutions that would be better for all in thelong run. Iamseriously concerned that we are living beyond our means.

Ihave experience with large as well as small companies, and Ihave seen companies succeed andfail.

Negligent managementisgenerally the key reason acompany fails, mostly because it can’t manage the debt load incurred on the balance sheet. Our state and country are in aseriously negative financial state at present, and it’sbecause our political leaders are more focused on continuing to please their public with tax cuts and support programs we can’tafford.

The damage excessive debt bringsisaloss of flexibility, and at the levels we currently have, it’sthe cost to keep debt on the books —costs that ultimately mean not less taxes but more, and the elimination of critical programs when they are needed most.

At the rate we are adding toour debt load, Ican only conclude that our leaders are willing to leave this mess for the next political group to deal with, which will leave it to future generations.

This means aloss of the progressive, creative focus for an improvedtomorrow

We need credible politicians whorecognize the problem and whowill deal with this serious problem with real solutions even when it may not be what thepublic wants to hear.It’sa difficult task for ageneration that has lived on such “support thinking that “tomorrow,things willbebetter.”

Yes, real change takes intellectual courage.

C. GERONHARGON Baton Rouge

NILhas ruined LSUbaseball

As with manyLSU baseball fans, Iagonize over theteam’srecord this year.Let me be clear about one thing:Jay Johnson is one of, if notthe, best coaches in baseball. This is not about coaching —it’sabout NIL,which hasruinedcollege sports. When theNCAA rolledoverand played dead when thisfirst came about, it vacated its moral authority and opened thedoor for what we see today even though there were several commonsense things it could have done to have controlled some of this Anytime you give alarge sum of money to aperson whoisbasically akid mentally,if not physically,only bad thingscan happen. Several players LSUgave money to thisyear have not played anywhere near theway they playedbefore LSU showed‘em the money Whynot? Complacency! They got the money,

so thefire is gone. It happens in the pros, so why is anyone surprised a21-year-old is not playing as well as last year?

In my opinion, if akid wants to be paid like apro, then treat him like one. Incentivize the NIL contract by reducing the upfront amount and adding step bonuses for milestones in play,e.g., fewererrors, stolen bases, battingaverage and ERA. Don’tjust hand them abucket of cash and thinkthey’ll play lightsout,because they won’t. More likely,they are thinking about thecar,gold bling, cruise or tropical vacation they want. When push comes to shove, Indiana had theright idea: Take athree-star 23- or 24-year-old who may or may not make thepros but still wantstoplay

DUDLEY GARIDEL Baton Rouge

Even Trump’scritics must admit somethinghad to be done aboutIran

Recently,A.R.P.Rau submitted aletter condemning our president for boorishlanguage when he cavalierly suggested the U.S. might wipe out an ancient civilization (Persia).

He also accused our president of actions “illegal under all national and international laws and military codes.” Finally,Rau cutely reminded us that Mahatma Gandhi thought Western civilization would be a good idea, obviously implying theWest is not too civilized.

Iwill agree that President Donald Trump is bombastic.

Title Xfunding is used to support comprehensive, affordable family planning and related preventive health services —especially for people with low incomes or without insurance. Lately,however,Health and Human Services has begun steering funding away from contraceptive services to counseling patients to use natural planning services. Natural family planning uses temperature fluctuations to predict when awoman will ovulate. Such predictions are helpful forincreasing the likelihood of conception but are statistically unreliable forpreventing pregnancy In acomplex economy such as ours, Ibelieve that it is important forwomen to control the size of their families in order to provide emotional, nutritional and educational support foreach child. The rate of teen pregnancies has declined dramatically in the last 20 years. This has reduced the rate of childhood poverty and benefited the economy.The federal government should not be making the choice for poor women to have morechildren.

MARCIA COOKE NewOrleans

Politicians havesold out Louisianaand itscitizens

Louisiana has surrendered to corporations and politicians interested in personal financial gain.

rational people should find acceptable Agreatlyimproved Middle East mayvery well one day thank the“unhinged boor” that is Rau’s description of our president. At thepresent, it seems most Iranians themselvessee the benefit of the actions taken by theU.S. and Israel and understand eggs need to be broken to make an omelet. The argument that currentactions violate military codes is hogwashonface value.

Lastly,and in defenseofWestern civilization,Gandhi was aweird, flawed manwho shouldn’tearn too many points forflippantly critiquing the West.

OUR GUIDELINES: Letters are published identifying name and the writer’scity of residence.The Advocate |The Times-Picayune require astreet address and phone 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 ALETTER SCAN HERE

Thatsaid, his actions have been measured andeffective. The attack on Iran has been carried out with surgical precision (very few civilians have died relative to the scope of the effort). The action was necessary because the proudPersian civilization had been hijacked by religious nutswho would bomb TelAviv with less discrimination than

Ivaluethe role your paper plays in our community,but I’mconcerned by the growingnumberofletters that rely on inflammatory rhetoric and personal attacks rather than thoughtful argument. Strong opinions are important, but namecallingand exaggerated claims only deepen divisionand lower the qualityofpublic discourse. Theletters page should encourage

People/societies who live in glass houses need not throw stones. The West has contributed moretoman’sprogress over the lastcouple of millennia than any other region on the planet by alarge margin. Rau knows that —helives hereand not in India.

KEVIN KELLY Baton Rouge

respectful, fact-based discussion —even when viewpoints differ sharply I’m not asking you to limit perspectives, only to uphold standards that promote civility and substance. Your editorial choices help set thetonefor the community,and Ihope thattone can be amore constructive one.

MIKENORTON Metairie

Soon, you won’t be able to sue the oil industry based on damage caused by climate change. Why? Because those politicians supporting these efforts do not care about Louisiana, you or your children’s future. They live forthe moments, and the momentistocash grab everything possible. How much more must we take before we send politicians and judges to jail forviolating their oath of office and not representing our best interests? Instead, they are funded by industries like the oil industry to choose against our best interests. The rich do not deserve the earth morethan we do; it’stimewerecognize that Louisiana is taking the corrupt pathway,much like the administration in the White House. How much must we lose before it is too late?

We allowed money to dominate how elections are run, operated and how outcomes are determined. It’s timetotake money out of politics and support real people, honest people, people whocare about citizens and this democracy

If one of our politicians supports acriminal, then by association, they are no better Their money keeps them out of jail; it’stimetochange that. Who are we talking about? Watch the political ads on the media today.It’s never been clearer.They are so corrupt that they don’teven care what we think anymore.

JOHN SFIRE NewOrleans

COMMENTARY

2026 LEGISLATIVERUNDOWN

As bills move in the Louisiana Legislature, we are featuring the

ISSUES INTHE SPOTLIGHT

La.trailsother SECstatesinschoolchoice

SB157

Educatorsneed paidparental leave

In football’sSoutheastern Conference, you don’tsit on awinning game plan and refuse to run it. When you’ve got the playbook, the recruitsand the crowd behind you, you takethe field. That’sexactly where Louisiana found itself last year.After fouryears and12separatebills,the Legislature in 2024 passed the LA GATOR Scholarship Program —Louisiana’sfirst education scholarship account program —and Gov. Jeff Landry signedit into law.For tensof thousands of families, it was along-overdue breakthrough. LA GATOR funds appropriated to the program can be used by families to pay for private school tuition, stand-alone courses, textbooks and curricula, tutoring, supplies and other approvededucational expenses. These dollars “follow” children to the school or learning environment that their families —those who know them best —believe is the best fitfor their individual needs and values. Unfortunately,when presented with the opportunity to make this areality, the Senate FinanceCommitteepunted. When the 2025 budget season arrived, Landry requested $93.5 million for LA GATOR, and the House backed it. But the Senate FinanceCommittee cut $50 million, leaving just enough to continue covering roughly 6,000 students already receiving statefunded scholarships —and onlya tiny fraction of the new students who had applied.

Nearly 40,000 Louisiana families applied for LA GATOR last year,with roughly 35,000 meeting eligibility requirements. Most were low-income families seeking better optionsfor their children. Yetall but about700 wereleft waiting. This spring,the state received more than 17,000 eligible applications.

On May 7, some of those families came to Baton Rouge. Parents drove in from across the state. Students sat before lawmakers and shared what education choice has meant to them. For hours, senators heard something no spreadsheet can measure:Education is notone-sizefits-all, and tax dollars should follow the child —not the system.

Meanwhile, Louisiana’sSEC neighbors aren’twaiting. Arkansas passed theLEARNS Act in 2023 and now offers universal education freedom accounts. Florida now serves more than half amillion studentsthrough scholarship programs. Alabama passed theCHOOSEAct andisexpandingfunding and eligibility.Tennessee joined them in 2025. Georgia just increased in size and scope its Georgia Promise scholarship program. These aren’t abstract policy wins. These are families in Little Rock, Mobile, Nashville and Miami who can choose theschool that fits their child —not just theone assigned by their ZIPcode. Louisiana families want anddeserve the same opportunity SenatePresident Cameron Henry says caution is warranted, citing concernsabout long-term costs. Fiscal responsibility matters. ButLouisiana is already competing against states investing boldly in education choice. Texaslawmakers approved a$1billion appropriation for school choice. Florida’sprograms costeven more —and Florida continues to win the competition for jobs, population and opportunity

AndAlabama, about the same size as Louisiana, will be spending $200 million on its scholarship program, without even coming close to busting thestate’sbudget Families votewith their feet.Increasingly,they’re choosing states that trust parents.

Lastyear’sfunding of just over 700 studentsout of over 35,000 wasn’ta demand problem.Itwas apolitical will problem. The LA GATOR law is already on thebooks. Gov.Landry is ready.The House is ready.Education leaders are ready.Families are ready —and they proved it by showing up.

The only question now is whether theSenate Finance Committee will let it work —orwhether Louisianawill keep watching the rest of itsconference pull ahead while Baton Rouge debates whether to run theplay

When Alabama is beating you on the field and in the classroom, it’stime to ask hard questions in Baton Rouge. LaneKiffin didn’tcome here to punt. Neither should theSenate Finance Committee.

Don GallatyIIisafather of twoand founder of LA Families Want LA GATOR.

The Louisiana Legislature’spossible implementation of paid parental leave for public schoolteachers and other employees is laudable andwelcome

Most workers cannot afford to take unpaid parental leave. Senate Bill 157 would enable K-12educators to have six weeksofpaid leave when theyneed to care for anew child without losing their income, savings or much-needed paid sick days.

Having paid parental leave would promote the health and well-being of Louisiana educators and their families. It would aid schools in the recruitment and retention of teachers. Peer states suchas Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee already have paid parentalleave policies for teachers and have found thatonly about 2% use the policy annually

Quality teaching can be maintained by schools developing lists of qualified teachers (often retirees) who may be substitutesfor those on leave. Louisiana is greatly concerned about both teacher shortages and, more generally,outmigrationand the loss of population. Implementing paid parental leave for teachers would be apositive step in helping Louisiana be abetter,more competitive state.

PHYLLIS RAABE

GOP membersshowed how little they care for voters

On the surface, the April 8Senate Governmental Affairs Committee hearing of Senate Bill 365 seemed to be democracy in action, but in reality,it waspolitical theater at best.

People traveled from all over the state to voice their support of the bill by state Sen. Royce Duplessis, aDemocrat, which proposed aLouisiana Voting Rights Act. The chairman of the committee, Sen. Caleb Kleinpeter,a Republican, was courteous, permitting everyone who wishedtospeak to do so without atime limit and thanking themfor their testimony.Twenty individuals testified in favor of SB365, 138 people submitted green cards of support and 70 emails of support were receivedby the committee. Only four individuals submitted red cards in opposition to the bill but none of them testified. When state Sen. Gary Carter, aDemocrat, made the motion that the bill be reportedfavorably, the chair objected and asked that avote be taken. The three Democrats on the committeevoted favorably,and the four Republicans present voted no. The Republican members of the committeedid not engage with the bill proceedings at all. They asked no questions. They expressed no opinions. They were silent until the vote. Ihave never witnessed acommitteehearing where the bill was voted down without an explanation of why Did they not believe the history of blatant Black voter suppression that was expressedbymanyof those who testified?

Did they believe that those issues had beenresolved?

Our neighbors are sleeping outside tonight. They are co-workers, cousins, the woman who used to do hair around the corner.Ifwedon’t know them, someonedoes.

House Bill 211 would finethem up to $500 and imprison them foruptosix months for havingnowhereto sleep. Asecond offense would be afelony: up to $1,000 and onetotwo years in prison, with or without hard labor

Nearly 1in5 Louisianans already lives below the poverty line, the highest rate in the country.HB211 would deepen ourpoverty,perpetuate homelessness and waste public money. It punishes aresult, sleeping outside, instead of dealing with the cause: the lack of affordable housing people can access, affordand maintain. The answer is stable housing, with help to obtain and keep it. Mostpeople experiencing homelessness are not committing crimes. ANational HealthCare for the Homeless Council study found nearly half are themselves victims of violence, comparedtoabout 2% of the general population. Some do commitcrimes, but HB211 does not address that. It makes survivingasbest you can acrime. The Legislature cannot even tell taxpayers what HB211 would cost Their own fiscal analysis says the cost of the new court system is “indeterminable.”

$1,200. Enforcementwould clear a sidewalkoranencampment. Arrest someone for sleepingoutside and theywouldgotojail. When they came out,they would still have nowhere to sleep. The next arrest would be for afelony. HB211 would turn survival into afelony HB211offersanalternative to jail: Amandatory treatment program through anew Homelessness Court, paid for by the defendant directly or worked offthrough unpaid labor

Two-thirds of people living in placesnot fit for humanhabitationdonot use illicit drugs. Of thosewho do,42% beganonly after losingtheir housing. Anxiety and depressionare common, but they are most often theconsequence ofbeing unhoused, notthe cause. The bill also assumes people will not accept help unless threatened with jail. The primary barrier is not willingness.Coercion causes compliance.Trust builds transformation. WhenSeattle surveyednearly 900 unhoused residents, 93% said they would come inside if offered safe, affordable housing

Ajail bed in Louisiana costs $60 to $75 per day.That is $1,800 to $2,250 a month. Rent in New Orleans averages

Residentialrehab in Louisianaaverages$4,400 aweek,orroughly $17,600 amonth. Court-mandated treatment producesworse outcomes than voluntary care, including higherrates of fataloverdose. For those whodoneed treatment,inpatient rehab without stablehousingfails Nationwide, 69% of people who werehomeless when they entered

substance use treatment were still homeless when they left.Treatment did nothouse them. What works is integrated care: stablehousing first, treatment alongside it.Housing first is fiscally responsible. It costs less than jail and less than inpatient rehab andisproven to work for people to access, afford andmaintainhousing. HB211 would alsochipaway at local decision-making. Cities could notopt outinfavor of what they knowisbest for their community.Home for Good hashoused over 1,000 New Orleaniansand closed eight encampments HB211 would dramatically impedeits work Minneapolis is acautionary tale. That city hasspent $5.5 to $7.5 million on forced encampmentclosuressince 2020, 75% of it on police. WhenMinneapolis chose outreach over coercion,costs dropped81%.Atthe Near North encampment, 26 of 28 residents were housedwithin three months. Not moved down theblock.Housed. The path to permanent supportive housing is outreach,not arrest. Louisiana is my chosen home. It’s likenoother place. We deserve elected leaderswho knowthe difference between governing andgiving up. As Paul Wellstone,a cherishedleader from Minnesota,myfirst home state, said, “Weall do better when we all do better.”

Sheila Delaney is aNew Orleans resident and the principal of Dovetail Action, ahousing-focused consultancy

Did they vote to maintain the tools of gerrymandering, poll closures, voter list purging andothers to benefit their party’shold on the state?

SB365 sought to ensure that all citizens of Louisiana have an equal opportunity to participate in the political process. Opponents of the bill didn’tgive citizens the courtesy of explaining their votes. We should all wonderwhy ESTHERDEJONG NewOrleans HB804

Lawmakersseek to protect oil companies at expenseofcitizens

House Bill 804, currently before the Louisiana Legislature, provides immunity to oil and gascompanies from lawsuits for climate-related damages, while forcing taxpayers to cover costs for disasters and coastal damage. This bill mirrors efforts at the federal level, which reflect success by gun manufacturers in passing the despicable Protectionof Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA).

It is important that this Louisiana bill notsucceed. The sooner consequences are enacted for the shameful waythe fossil fuel industry has polluted the planet, the fewer severe catastrophic effects will occur.Salutary reversals still have achance of allowing us to evade extremeheat, weather, fires, sea level rise and more that will be inevitable otherwise. According to data from the Louisiana Ethics Administration website,state Rep. Brett Geymann, who sponsored the Louisiana bill, hasreceivedat least $28,000 from oiland gascompaniesand their PACs in campaign donations from 2002-2025. While this hardly ranks as high corruption, it confirms the suspicion that campaign donations direct egregious legislation.

MARION FREISTADT NewOrleans

SPORTS

N.O. hasworktodobeforereturntoprime time

Saints haveone evening game scheduledin’26

BY MATTHEWPARAS Staff writer

The New Orleans Saints’ loneprime-time game in 2026 came on the direct ordersof NFL commissioner RogerGoodell.

No,the league’s topexecutive didn’tmandate that the Saints needed to be featured after being shut out of thespotlight in 2025. But Goodell did want the league’sschedulemakers and networks to recognize the 20th anniversary of the Saints’ first game

ANALYSIS

Struggles on the mound continued forTigers

BY KOKI RILEY Staff writer

Anightmarish regular season for LSU baseball finally came to aclose on Saturday, when the Tigers were sweptfor afifth time in six weeks this weekendbyFlorida LSUlost to Florida 11-8 on Thursday,11-1 in seven innings on Friday and 15-11 on Saturday

Next up for LSU is atrip to Hoover,Alabama, where the Tigers will play at leastone game at the SEC Tournament. LSU, the No 14 seed,willface No. 11 Oklahoma on Tuesday before potentially facing No. 6Auburn thenext day

For LSU to make the NCAA Tournament, it will need to win the SEC Tournament by earning five victories in six days. Butbefore the festivities inHoover get underway, here are five takeaways from this weekend’s three-game set with Florida.

WhySchmidt andEvans didn’t start With LSU’sfate sealed heading into the weekend in needing to win fivegames in six days at the SEC Tournament to make an NCAA regional, LSU coach Jay Johnson decided to pull back andrest his top two starters ahead of the Tigers’firstgamein Hoover Evans threw 41 pitches in reliefonFriday, while Schmidt wasn’teven on theactive rosterthis weekend. The slow week for both sophomore right-handers meantthatthey’ll both be available to throw against Oklahoma on Tuesday night. Johnson wasn’t happy with hisown decision. “Do Ilove not havingWilliamSchmidt andCasan Evans against Florida?”Johnson said. “No, Ihate it. It makes me sick in my stomach.”

Is Sernaok?

Afterblasting ahomerun anda double in the first two gamesofthe series, LSU’s freshman catcher sat out Saturday’sgame to rest ahead of the SEC Tournament.

back in the Superdome after Hurricane Katrina —sohemade sure they wereaware to schedule theSaints on “Monday Night Football” against the Atlanta Falcons, anod to thesame matchup that took place all the way back then.

“Itwas arequirement straight from the boss that it landed on our schedule,” NFL vicepresident of broadcast planning Mike North said on acall with reporters to discuss this year’sschedule.

Otherwise,the Saints still have work to do before they’reonce again regarded as a marquee team in the NFL.

Alate-season win streak,the emergence of quarterback Tyler Shough and abuzzy offseason weren’tenough to completely

turn around New Orleans’ perception, at least in the eyes of the league’s stakeholders. While the Saints were granted theright to play theNFL’s first gamein France —another standalone window, albeit onenot in primetime —New Orleans’ schedulefeatures 13 of its 17 games at noon. That’s three more noon outings thanlast year,when the black and gold had 10 noon games and six in the late-afternoon window. Given the setup, it is fair to wonder whether theSaints would have been shut out of primetime again hadthere not been asignificant

ä See SAINTS, page 4C

DAYTIMETV

NewOrleans’schedule features 13 of 17 gamesat noon.Lastyear, the Saints had10noon gamesand sixinthe late-afternoon window

BA TO NR OU GE RE GI ON AL

championship game

CLEANSWEEP

BY JIM KLEINPETER Contributingwriter

LSU softball didn’t simply get redemption; it left no doubt,and it was the seniors leading the way

The Tigerswashed away the bad memories of last year’sregional collapse with athird consecutive dominant performance in beating Virginia Tech, 7-2, in the championship game of the Baton Rouge RegionalSunday at Tiger Park. Senior transfer Paytn Monticelli shackled the powerhitting visitors after surrendering an early lead, retir-

ing the final 16 batters she faced. Senior captains Jalia Lassiter and Maci Bergeron keyed the offense with two runs batted in each to propel LSU (40-17) into the Super Regional roundatNo. 1overall seed Alabama next weekend.

“I don’teven know wheretostart on our team,” LSU coach Beth Torina said. “I’m so proud of this entire group. I’m proud of their growth and the seniorleadership.Every timeour seniorclass decidesthatit’stime to go, those are the ones that go the best.”

LSU right fielderAlix Franklin racedback toward the wall, futilely it seemed, trying to chase down alongflyoff thebat of VirginiaTech’s Addison Foster TheHokieshave been known for their prodigioushome run power,hitting 108 in all. Despite astrong south wind howling into TigerPark,this certainly looked like No. 109. Then,Franklin, allher lifebefore this season spent as an infielder,made the play.The catch. The whatever-you-want-to-call-it, reaching over the wall as she slammed into it with frightening force to rob

Foster and Virginia Tech of apotentially momentum-shifting moment. “Jalia (Lassiter,LSU’s center fielder) and Ipracticed balls at the wall like that Idon’tknow how manytimes,” said Franklin, who fortunately didn’tfracture any bones to makeher “SportsCenter”worthy play It wasjust the bottom of the fifth inning (why hometeams in regionals must ever be the visiting team has always been beyond me) Virginia Tech, which scored six remarkable runs in the top of the seventh Saturday night to eliminate Akron 7-6 and get into this NCAA regional final with LSU,still had time.

6:30 p.m.Montreal at Buffalo ESPN

MEN’S SOCCER

2p.m.Burnley at Arsenal USA TENNIS

3a.m.(Tue.) RolandGarrosqualifying Tennis

5a.m.(Tue.) RolandGarrosqualifying Tennis WNBA

7p.m.Washington

RairunsawaywithPGA Championship

He becomes first English-born player in more than acentury to winevent

BY DOUG FERGUSON Associated Press

NEWTOWNSQUARE, Pa.— Aaron Rai shifted intohigh gear Sunday and pulled away froma world-class field with one amazing shot after another until he becamethe first English-born player in more than acentury to capture thePGA Championship.

Rai, who dreamed of being a Formula 1driver until he turned to golf as aboy,was three shots behind and approaching the turn at AroniminkGolf Clubwhenhe delivered aperformanceworthy of amajor champion.

He made a40-foot eagle putt on thepar-5 ninth during astretch when he one-putted sevenstraight greens to take the lead. And on theclosingholes when the contenders needed himto stumble, Rai holeda birdieputtof some 70 feet across the 17th green for the clincher.

The 31-year-old Rai, who joins two-timePGA champion Vijay Singh as major champions of Indian heritage, closed with a5-under 65.

“Tobehere is outside my wildest imagination,” Rai said Jon Rahm,Rory McIlroy,Xander Schauffele, Cameron Smith, Justin Rose, all major champions, all of them in position until they were undone by untimely mistakes or failure to get goodlooks at birdie.

McIlroy,who closed witha 69, played the par 5s in even for theweekand he chopped up the reachable par-4 13th for abogey He also glared and softly cursed at afan who said, “USA,”after

McIlroy hit awedge from the rough to the bunker on the par-5 16th.It was an indication McIlroy knew hishopes were all but gone. Rai, who finished at 9-under 271, is thefirst player from England with his name on the Wanamaker Trophy sinceJim Barnes in 1919, the second edition of this major and thefirst after World WarI He wound up winning by three shotsover 54-hole leaderAlex Smalleyand Rahm,who had his best finishinamajor sincedefectingtoLIV Golf at theend of 2023. Rahm was slowed by apair of bogeys on the front nine,and managed only one birdie on the back nine fora 68. Smalley lost thelead with a messy double bogey on the sixth hole, and hisbest golf was too late. Rai already had his eye on theWanamakerTrophy.Smalley made birdieonthe 18th for a70.

Justin Thomas made a16-foot parputt onthe final hole fora65 and pulled himwithin one shot of the lead asthe finalgroup was in the second fairway.For the longest time, as Aronimink got tougher andthe pressure gottighter, it looked likeThomasmight have a

chance.

Like everything elseonthisfinal day,Rai ended those hopes, too.

So concluded amost remarkable week in the Philadelphia suburbs, where no one could separate themselves on Aronimink. The 22 players within four shots of the lead going into thefinal round was aPGA Championship record. From that pack emerged the 31-year-old Rai,withone PGA Tour title, three on the European tour, and no finishes inside thetop 15 at any of the majors.

He might not be well known amongcasual observers, but he is astarinthe eyes of his peers for his humility and gracious personality.

“You won’tfind oneperson on propertywho’snot happy for him,” McIlroy said.

“Super pumped for him andhis team,” Schauffele said. “All-world gentleman, no doubt.”

He wears two gloves, ahabit he started as akid in England to battle the cold winters when he was practicing —and he wasalways practicing. Even more unusual for Rai is the plastic coversoneach iron, areminder of his roots.

He once said his father sacrificed to buy the nicest golf clubs and then would clean the grooves with baby oil afterhis son was done playing. Rai has leftthe iron covers on since then “to remember where Icam from and to respect what Ihave.”

“Anybody that uses head covers in his irons because he coveted his irons when he was akid so much thathewanted to respect the equipment and to still do it? Yeah, it shows alot aboutaperson,” Rahm said. “What he did today is nothing short of special.”

Thoseseven straight one-putts included ashort putt forbogey on thepar-3 eighth, leaving Rai three behind Matti Schmid,who had three birdies in afive-hole stretch on the front to take the lead. Rai hit 5-wood into the ninth for his 40-foot eagle putt. He saved par witha10-foot putt on the 10th. He hit wedge to 4feet to adangerouspin on the 11th forbirdie.He got up-and-down from behind the 12th green forpar Andonthe 292-yard13th hole, which tripped up McIlroy and Schauffele andNick Taylor of Canada when they were right in the mix, Rai blasted out of abunkerto6feet for abirdie to become thefirst player allweektoreach 7 under.And thenhekeptright on going.

Thomas wound up in atie for fourth at 5-under 275 with Ludvig Aberg (69) and Schmid,whose 5-foot par puttonthe 18th hole gets him into his first Masters next year.Smith, who didn’tdrop ashot until the 17th hole, had a68 to join McIlroyand Schauffele (69) another shot back. Reigning championScottie Scheffler missed a4-footbirdie puttonthe third hole and twice missed 3-foot par putts on the back nine in hisclosing roundof 69 to tie for 14th, his first timeout of the top10atamajor sincethe 2024 U.S. Open.

LSUmen’s golf team headswesttoNCAAregionals

Tigers areNo. 2seed forregionalinArizona

BY SCOTT RABALAIS Staff writer

The LSU men’sgolf team is hoping achange of direction will mean areversal of fortune from ayear ago as theTigers head to NCAA regional play In 2025, LSU headed eastasthe top seed in the regional in Amherst, Virginia, but finished ninth overall and failed to advance to theNCAA championships. This year,the Tigers are going west as the No. 2seed in theregional in Marana,Arizona, at The

Gallery Golf Club just north of Tucson. The 54-holetournament runs MondaythroughWednesday.The top five teams advance to the NCAA championships May 29-June 3atthe La Costa Resort &Spa in Carlsbad, California, where the LSU women are teeing it up starting Fridayintheir NCAA championships.

“Last year we werethe one seed in areally tough regional,” LSU coach JakeAmos said.

“This year we’re thetwo seed and theonly way to getthrough it is to tryto winit, honestly. If youfocusonthe minimum, you will get the minimum.”

The Tigers bolted out of the gate in the fall with three team

victories, rising to No. 2inthe national polls. LSU didn’twin in thespring but was solid with nothing less than afourth-place finish until theTigersfinished 12th in stroke playatthe Southeastern Conferencechampionships last monthand wereunable to advance to match play.

“Ifwe’d had abad fall and then hadthreewins thisspring, we’d have been delighted,” Amos said. “You can flip it both ways. Obviously,wehad abad SECs, but SECs is like thehardestevent in theworld. It’sridiculously tough.” Amos will take sixplayers, including an alternate, to Arizona, with five competing each day

andthe lowfourscores counting. The lineup includes senior Matty Dodd-Berry and freshman Dan Hayes from England, juniorsNoah McWilliamsfrom Benton and Jay Mendell from Lafayette,and sophomoreArni Sveinssonfrom Iceland. Baton Rouge’s Luke Askew,asenior is the alternate. Mendell, McWilliams andSveinssonall have stroke averagesunder 70 this season at 69.56, 69.60 and69.83, respectively Live scoring is available at scoreboard.clippd.com. The website babygrandegolf.com will stream action from all NCAA regionals on apay-perview basis.

Woad wins in Cincinnati for second LPGA Tour title

CINCINNATI Lottie Woad held off Haeran Ryuona gustySundayat MaketewahCountry Club in the Kroger Queen City Championship. Three strokes ahead of playing partner Amanda Doherty and four ahead of Ryu entering the round, Woad closed with a1-under 69 for atwo-stroke victory.The 22-yearold English player finishedat 12-under 268. Ryuhad adouble bogey on the par-4 13th in a67. She played first nine in 5-under 30.

Nelly Korda shot a67totie for eighth at 5under afterwinning in her previous two starts. She began the daynine strokes back after a third-round 72. Woad won for the second time on the LPGA Tour,following avictory last year in the Women’s Scottish Open in her professional debut.

Astros hit again by injuries as Altuve heads to IL HOUSTON Secondbaseman JoseAltuve will be placed on the injured list with agrade 2left oblique strain, the latest blowtoa Houston Astros team that has been ravaged by injuries.

Manager Joe Espada announced the injury following Sunday’s8-0 loss to the Texas Rangers that dropped the Astros to 19-29 this season.Hedidn’tprovide atimeline for how long they expect Altuve to be out.

Altuve wasinjured in the ninth inning of Saturday night’s4-1 win over theRangers after taking an awkward swing.

He was not madeavailable to reporters after Sunday’sgame. Not counting Altuve, the Astros have 14 players on the injured list.

Paloulookstorepeat at Indy 500, wins pole spot

INDIANAPOLIS Alex Palou had his best qualifying attempt on hisfinalfour-laprun Sundayand took hissecondcareerIndianapolis 500 pole with an average speed of 232.248 mph. He’s the first reigning champion to claim the No. 1 starting spot since 2010. He’sthe only starter on the 33car starting grid with aqualifying average topping232.Alexander Rossi will start acareer-best second after going 231.990. He’ll start between Palouand Team Penske driver David Malukas on the front rowinnextSunday’ssold-out race. Malukas went231.877.

Felix Rosenqvist, of Sweden, finished the third and final round with a231.375 and will start fourth. Palouistrying to become the seventh driverinrace history to winback-to-back 500s.

Sinner wins Italian Open, matchesDjokovic’srecord

ROME Italian tennis fans had waited for thismomentfor a half century.For JannikSinner, though, it wasn’tjust about becoming the first Italian man to winthe Italian Open since Adriano Panatta 50 years ago.

Thetop-ranked Sinner’s6-4,6-4 victory over Casper Ruud in Sunday’sfinal on the red clay of the Foro Italicoalsomade himonlythe second man after Novak Djokovic to winall nineMasters 1000 events —the biggest tournaments outside the Grand Slams.

Djokovic completed the career set in 2018 in Cincinnati at age 31 —and thenwentontowin each event at least twice. Sinner is 24, and his only real rival, Carlos Alcaraz, is sidelined duetoa right wrist injury

Rousey uses armbar,beats Carano in 17 seconds

INGLEWOOD,Calif. When Ronda Rousey finally got back into a mixed martial arts cage after 91/2 years away from her sport, she couldn’twait one more minute to collect anotherarm —and to have her own arm raised one last time. RouseystoppedGina Carano with her signature armbar just 17 seconds into the two iconic fighters’double comebackboutSaturday night.

After finishing Carano, 44, with aferocity that evoked her famous heyday,the 39-year-old Rousey reaffirmed that thiswas onlythe epilogue on her historic MMA career Carano, who hadn’tfought in 17 years, was all smiles even after the swiftend to one of the longest layoffs in pro sports history.Rousey and Carano hugged and raised each other’sarmsinvictory

Edwards, T-wolves still trying to climb over hump

BY DAVE CAMPBELL AP sportwriter

MINNEAPOLIS Once the Minnesota Timberwolves had conceded defeat midway through the fourth quarter of their seriesclinching loss to the San Antonio Spurs, Anthony Edwards came out of the game and sat down next to Donte DiVincenzo.

All those double-teams Edwards faced in the second round once he crossed halfcourt could’ve been a lot easier to counteract with a simple pass to his trusty teammate DiVincenzo in the slot to set up a 3-point shot and make the Spurs think twice about trapping.

“Missing Donte is big for us, man,” Edwards said after the season-ending defeat on Friday night. “He spreads the floor like no other.”

When DiVincenzo went down with a torn right Achilles tendon midway through the first round, the Timberwolves in an instant lost one of their headiest and steadiest players on both ends of the floor He combined for a plus-40 rating and 31 points over their Game 2 and Game 3 victories against Denver that took control of that series.

Then after DiVincenzo’s crushing injury in the opening minute of Game 4, Edwards joined him on the sideline with a hyperextension and bone bruise in his left knee. He returned ahead of schedule to start the second round, but his usual explosiveness wasn’t there.

Sixth man Naz Reid was available the whole way, but he had to fight through a lingering right shoulder injury that hindered him throughout the regular season. Edwards, who’d also been playing through pain in his

right knee for much of the year, quickly zeroed in on strength and conditioning when he spoke about his focus for the upcoming offseason.

“The basketball stuff,” Edwards said “it’s not last but when it comes to me being injured a lot this year, I’ve got to really focus on my knees, my ankles, my hips.”

The young core isn’t quite so young anymore, as the four-time All-Star began to find out with his body this year Edwards will turn 25 in August.

“I think it’s been eyeopening for him in the sense that he realizes how fragile sometimes these things can be,” coach Chris Finch said on Saturday morning at team headquarters as players went through exit meetings with staff. “Yeah, 100% health is going to be absolutely key for him. There’s going to be skill pieces to his game that he’s going to always want to add or polish, but to me it’s more about his approach and how he sees himself coming into the season and what the team really needs.”

Wolves need to find a better head space

The most impactful contribution Edwards can make to this deep, proud and talented team that has won five playoff series over the last three years is actually on the mental side. For all the resilience the Wolves have long possessed, no more evident than after DiVincenzo and Edwards were injured against the Nuggets, they have not yet figured out how to put it all together during the regular season in a way that repeated good habits can be easily tapped when games get hard in the play-

offs.

“There’s just no place for that inconsistency when you’re trying to compete for a championship,” veteran point guard Mike Conley said.

Finch put his finger on the trouble during one of the regular-season ruts, identifying a moodiness that gets in the way of the type of surgical execution of game plans that the defending champion Oklahoma City and now San Antonio can consistently lean on.

“We let our head down a little too long or a little too low, where we kind of put ourselves in the mud and were finding trouble getting out,” Reid said.

Conley still wants to play

Finch revealed in his season-ending interview with reporters that he decided rather abruptly right before the regular season to put DiVincenzo in the starting lineup in favor of the 38-year-old Conley, who handled the diminished playing time with class but made clear on Saturday that he still plans to play another season or two. The move worked wonders for DiVincenzo’s confidence and production, but making Edwards the primary point guard put more on his shoulders and the absence of Conley’s ball-handling, experience and court vision in key spots was clearly felt.

“Coach obviously has a lot of trust and confidence in what I can bring at moments during the year and he kind of leaned into that a little bit in the playoffs,” said Conley, who will be an unrestricted free agent. “I was able to play some of my better basketball down the stretch, I think, of the season.”

Thunder, Spurs make up an epic matchup in the Western finals

BY TIM REYNOLDS AP basketball writer

OKLAHOMA CITY This is not a one-of-a-kind matchup in the Western Conference finals. And it’s not the NBA Finals, either It may just seem that way In one corner, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder winners of 64 games this season In the other corner, Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs, winners of 62 games this season and four against the Thunder That’s the West finals matchup, with Game 1 on Monday in Oklahoma City

“Just the words ‘conference finals’ — is crazy,” Wembanyama said “It’s something I heard my whole life and now being in it is just special.” This is only the seventh time in NBA history that a playoff series features two teams that won 62 games (or had an equivalent winning percentage of .756 or better, when taking into account the years without an 82-game schedule). It’s the first since Chicago vs. Utah in the 1998 NBA Finals. The others: Chicago-Utah in the 1997 finals, ChicagoSeattle in the 1996 finals, Boston-Los Angeles Lakers in the 1985 finals, BostonPhiladelphia in the 1981 Eastern Conference finals and Lakers-Milwaukee in the 1972 West finals.

The first four such matchups obviously decided the NBA champion for that season, because those were all in the finals. The two previous conference finals showdowns between teams with records this good ultimately led to championships as well, with the Celtics taking the title in 1981 and the Lakers in 1972.

“It’s fitting because both teams earned their way here,” Thunder coach

Mark Daigneault said Sunday. “I mean that’s how it works. You’ve got to win four games to advance and then you’ve got to win four games again — and if you do that, you’re in the Western Conference finals. And that’s what makes it fitting. It is a team we have a ton of respect for We know what they’re capable of. It’s an opponent that is incredibly worthy and that we’re going to need to be our best to beat and we understand that.”

The series

It’s the first playoff matchup between the clubs since 2016, when the Thunder beat the Spurs in six games in the Western Conference semifinals. Only five players from that series Kevin Durant, Steven Adams, Russell Westbrook, Kyle Anderson and Kawhi Leonard — remain in the NBA and none are still with either the Thunder or the Spurs.

The Spurs went 4-1 against the Thunder this season, winning three of those games by 10 or more points. The rest of the league has a combined six such wins over Oklahoma City this season.

“You could take a bit from it,” Spurs guard De’Aaron Fox said. “But the playoffs is a different story, obviously.

The Thunder may get a big piece of their lineup back for Game 1. Guard Jalen Williams, who has been out for nearly a month with a left hamstring injury, was not on Oklahoma City’s initial injury report filed Sunday afternoon a sign that he should be available for the series opener Edge in this round

The Thunder has a huge edge when it comes to having experience this deep into the playoffs. Only five current Spurs

SGA wins second NBA MVP award

BY TIM REYNOLDS AP basketball writer

OKLAHOMA CITY He’s the best player on the best team. And the voters say he’s the best player in the league, too.

Again. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of the reigning NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder won the NBA’s Most Valuable Player on Sunday for the second consecutive year He became the 18th player to win at least two MVP awards and the 14th to win them in back-to-back fashion.

“Who he is has never changed,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said “I think he’s touched up the edges on his game and on his leadership and on his perspective, just like anybody else that’s coming of age.”

was Gilgeous-Alexander, Jokic and Antetokounmpo.

— In 2024, it was Jokic, then Gilgeous-Alexander and then-Dallas guard, now Los Angeles Lakers guard Luka Doncic of Slovenia.

— In 2023, it was Embiid, then Jokic, then Antetokounmpo.

— In 2022, it was Jokic, then Embiid, then Antetokounmpo.

Gilgeous-Alexander and Wembanyama will face off Monday night when the Thunder and Spurs open Game 1 of the Western Conference finals in Oklahoma City NBA Commissioner Adam Silver is expected at Monday’s game to formally present Gilgeous-Alexander with a trophy for the third time in 12 months the MVP award last May, the NBA Finals MVP award last June, and now this.

the league. Emotions aren’t worth his time; staying calm is always his preferred move.

have scored in a conference finals or an NBA Finals game — and since the postseason started only one of those five, Luke Kornet, is averaging more than 10 minutes per contest. Harrison Barnes is playing 9.8 minutes per game and the remaining three Spurs of Kelly Olynyk, Mason Plumlee and Bismack Biyombo aren’t in the regular rotation.

But the Thunder has 12 players who have scored in Rounds 3 or 4 of the playoffs, most of that coming on the run to last season’s title.

Chance at history

Going back to Game 7 of last season’s playoffs, the Thunder has won nine consecutive playoff games — it is 8-0 this season.

A victory on Monday would make this Oklahoma City club the 11th team in NBA history to have a 10game postseason winning streak. The Thunder could also become the eighth team to begin a postseason run with a 9-0 record.

“Everything that we’ve done so far is behind us,” Gilgeous-Alexander said.

“We still haven’t reached our goal We have two more series to win until we reach our ultimate goal and that’s what we’re focusing on.” Ahead of schedule

The Thunder was supposed to be here: defending champions, whole team back, the heavy preseason favorites to win this season’s title

The Spurs, well, were not.

Oddsmakers had San Antonio’s predicted win total for the season at 44.5. And with championship odds of 66-1, San Antonio had the 17thbest odds in a 30-team league coming into the season.

Here the Spurs are, in the NBA’s final four And that would suggest they’re ahead of schedule.

The win for Gilgeous-Alexander, who is Canadian, marks the eighth consecutive time that the NBA’s MVP was born outside the U.S. The run started with Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo (born in Greece of Nigerian descent) in 2019 and 2020, then Denver’s Nikola Jokic (Serbia) in 2021 and 2022, Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid (born in Cameroon but has since become a U.S. citizen) in 2023 and Jokic again in 2024. And in 2025 and 2026, SGA is the MVP “Shai’s so good at creating separation when he’s able to play 1-on-1,” Los Angeles Lakers coach JJ Redick said. “He’s just really hard to stop, for any defender.”

International players finished 1-2-3 in the MVP balloting for the fifth consecutive season, with Jokic and San Antonio’s star French center Victor Wembanyama the other finalists this year — Last season the order

The MVP win is Gilgeous-Alexander’s second major individual award this season; he was also voted the league’s Clutch Player of the Year by an overwhelming margin — he got 96 of 100 firstplace votes in that balloting, paying tribute to how great his performances tend to be in the final five minutes of close games. Then again, he’s pretty good no matter how much time is on the clock.

Gilgeous-Alexander was second in the league with 31.1 points per game, second only to Doncic and his 33.5-point average. He also extended his NBA-record streak of regular season games with at least 20 points to 140 and counting; it’ll carry into next season as well.

He’s delightfully boring — one of the few midrange specialists in the game, someone who excels at drawing fouls, isn’t a look-at-me type and gives some of the most thoughtful answers of anyone in

“It just gives me the best chance to make the right decision on the next play which is what’s most important,” Gilgeous-Alexander said “I’ve noticed throughout my career and through personal experiences that emotions only get in the way of critical and smart thinking — especially in those moments when I want to get the job done the most I try to put my emotions aside and stay locked in on what’s present and what matters most.” Jokic not winning the award continues an odd trend: those who average a triple-double often thought of as the holy grail of ingame accomplishment, almost never win MVP Jokic had the seventh instance of a player finishing a season averaging a triple-double — at least 10 points, 10 assists and 10 rebounds per game — by putting up 27.7 points, a league-best 12.9 rebounds and a league-best 10.7 assists per game. It wasn’t good enough for MVP Russell Westbrook averaged a triple-double four times and won MVP only once in those years. Oscar Robertson averaged a triple-double in 1961-62; he didn’t win MVP that season. And now, Jokic has done it twice with no MVPs to show for it, though he has won the award on three other occasions. Golden State’s Stephen Curry was the last player born in the U.S. to be in the top three of the MVP balloting; he was third in 2021 behind Jokic and Embiid. The last U.S. winner of the award was James Harden, then of Houston, in 2018. Harden has played for four different franchises since then.

The more Kiffin talks, the better Sumrall looks

BY MIKE BIANCHI Orlando Sentinel (TNS)

ORLANDO, Fla. — Florida Gators

athletic director Scott Stricklin

may not have realized it in December, but losing Lane Kiffin to LSU could eventually look less like a rejection and more like a fortunate escape. Or maybe not. None of what I am about to write will matter once the season kicks off. New Gators coach Jon Sumrall is going to have to win, just as Kiffin will have to win at LSU There are no offseason championships in the SEC, no trophies handed out for charisma, sound bites or recruiting rankings in May But sitting here today, I trust Jon Sumrall more than I trust Lane Kiffin, and that sentence would have sounded completely insane to most of Gator Nation five months ago

When Kiffin chose LSU over Florida in December, the mood felt somewhere between heartbreak and existential crisis. Florida fans didn’t just want Kiffin; they needed him. They wanted the swagger, the offensive genius, the trolling personality, the celebrity coach who could instantly make Florida feel nationally relevant again. Instead, the Gators ended up with what many fans initially viewed as a fallback option: Tulane coach Jon Sumrall. The reaction was predictable. Another Group of Five coach from Louisiana? Didn’t Florida already try that with Billy Napier? There was a sense of depression hanging over the program Many fans treated the hire like Florida had gone shopping for a Ferrari and driven home on a pawn shop bicycle. But something funny has happened since then. Sumrall has completely changed the energy around the program, while Kiffin has spent the offseason setting his own reputation on fire yet again Sumrall has injected urgency accountability and toughness into a program that desperately needed all three. He’s recruiting like his hair is on fire. Florida currently sits with the No. 7 recruiting class in the nation. He’s energized donors. He’s re-engaged a fan base that had become emotionally numb. And maybe most importantly he doesn’t sound like a coach trying to manage perceptions. He sounds like a football coach trying to fix a football team. That matters, especially after the sterile corporate monotony of the Napier era Sumrall hasn’t hidden the fact that he inherited a soft program.

“I can’t speak to what went on last year,” Sumrall told me a couple of months ago. “I just feel that what I first experienced around this team (when he arrived) was way too casual for me, too nonchalant. I didn’t feel the urgency and intent initially.” That’s not coach-speak That’s confrontation, and it’s exactly what Florida fans have been starving for Shortly after arriving, Sumrall stripped the iconic Gator-head logo from team-issued apparel.

“Gotta earn it. Gotta earn the logo,” Sumrall said. “We ain’t earned it yet. We haven’t earned a damn thing.” And unlike so many modern coaches who tiptoe around entitled players who earn sevenfigure salaries, Sumrall sounds refreshingly unapologetic about demanding more of his mercenary millionaires.

“I’ve got expectations to win every game we play,” Sumrall said a few days ago on the Action Sports Jax podcast. “I’m not comfortable with anybody going, ‘Hey how many games are you comfortable winning this year?’ If anybody tells me bowl eligible, we’d better be, or I’ll be at the top of the stadium getting ready to do something stupid. To me, you have to have urgency every day As soon as you put a ceiling or a cap on what you can do and start to think with limits in mind, you’re automatically handicapping yourself For me, our expectations are for our guys to expect to win every freaking time that we take the field.”

Now let’s compare that energy to the chaos surrounding Kiffin right now His exit from Ole Miss already turned him into one of the biggest villains in college football.

COMMENTARY

Hamlin beats Briscoe at Dover in All-Star Race

By The Associated Press

The Rebels were enjoying the greatest season of the modern era and preparing for the College Football Playoff when Kiffin bolted for LSU in spectacularly messy fashion.

He reportedly fought with administrators over whether he could continue coaching Ole Miss during the playoff while simultaneously taking over a direct SEC rival. Staff members were caught in the middle. Players were blindsided. The entire thing looked less like a professional transition and more like a reality television meltdown.

And then this week came perhaps the most tone-deaf moment yet. In a Vanity Fair interview, Kiffin tried explaining why LSU is easier to recruit to than Ole Miss, essentially saying some Black recruits and their families didn’t want to play in Oxford, Mississippi, because of the school’s racial history

Factually, he’s not entirely wrong. Politically, socially and publicly, though, it was an absolute disaster because Kiffin coached at Ole Miss for six years and never once seemed interested in publicly discussing Mississippi’s complicated racial history while cashing paychecks and winning games there. Now suddenly, he talks as if LSU is the Stanford of the South in terms of diversity and progressiveness.

Kiffin is like the employee who leaves Applebee’s for Chili’s and suddenly brags about the international cuisine.

The comments reopened every uncomfortable conversation tied to Ole Miss and Mississippi’s past — the Confederate imagery, the old “Dixie” traditions, Colonel Reb and even the origins of the “Ole Miss” nickname itself. Whether Kiffin intended it or not, he walked directly into a cultural minefield while simultaneously making himself look opportunistic and self-serving

That’s the problem with Kiffin. He’s brilliant offensively. He’s magnetic. He’s entertaining. But eventually the storm always follows him. Drama follows him. Chaos follows him. Self-inflicted wounds follow him.

Florida fans wanted the Lane Train because they were desperate for excitement, but excitement and stability are not the same thing

Meanwhile, Sumrall seems to be trying to build something that at least appears rooted in discipline, toughness and accountability.

While Kiffin takes hot yoga classes, Sumrall is lifting weights at 6 a.m. with his players. What Sumrall seems to understand is that the Gators lost their edge and their identity years ago. They stopped looking hungry and, too often, looked comfortable being mediocre. Sumrall finds that unacceptable. Will any of this guarantee victories? Of course not. The SEC doesn’t care about offseason culture victories. Florida still has to beat Georgia, survive nine SEC games and prove it can matter nationally again. And maybe Kiffin wins huge at LSU while Sumrall flames out in three years. That’s entirely possible

But sitting here today five months after Florida fans thought the sky was falling because Kiffin said no — it suddenly feels possible that the Gators may have ended up with the better fit after all.

DOVER, Del In the debut of the All-Star Race at Dover Motor Speedway, the Monster Mile lived up to its billing as one of NASCAR’s most treacherous tracks.

Even for winner Denny Hamlin, surviving Dover was a high-wire test for the $1 million prize.

Rebounding from a qualifying spin to start from the pole position, Hamlin steered clear of trouble on Sunday for his second NASCAR All-Star Race victory. He led the final 30 laps and outdueled Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Chase Briscoe while avoiding the eight caution flags that involved 23 of 36 drivers in the field, which was inverted after the first 75-lap segment.

“It makes it a lot easier when you’ve got a car this fast,” said Hamlin, whose No. 11 Toyota led a race-high 103 of 200 laps in the last segment “We strive to be No. 1, and we did it today. It really challenged us to have to go through traffic, but I definitely like the invert. Obviously, it caused some chaos there and took out some good cars, but overall, it’s a typical All-Star Race when that stuff happens.”

Briscoe finished 0.887 seconds behind Hamlin with a No. 19 Toyota that was heavily damaged in a practice crash Saturday

“It was obviously a really fast car,” Briscoe said after his career-best second in the AllStar Race. “I’m just proud of our group. I knocked the wall down in practice, and we basically rebuilt the whole car So for them to be able to just get the car back to where it was competitive, it says a lot about the guys.”

It’s the third consecutive win

SAINTS

Continued from page 1C

anniversary of one of the franchise’s biggest games.

But if the Saints feel as if they deserve more of the spotlight, they wouldn’t be alone. Five teams didn’t even get one prime-time game including the Tennessee Titans, who were shut out for the second straight year

Gone are the days when teams would automatically be rewarded with a night game.

The league changed that rule eight years ago, North said. These days, the league aims to schedule its most compelling matchups in prime time with the right to swap out for another matchup later in the year if the “crystal ball” isn’t as clear as the league had hoped.

“Anybody else who felt like they didn’t get as much national television exposure as they were hoping to, that’s what flexible scheduling is for,” North said. “That’s why we put it in. That’s why we work with our partners every year to ensure that the teams that have played their way into bigger television windows have an opportunity to get rewarded when we get into November or December.”

Last year, Saints general manager Mickey Loomis admitted he was “surprised” at the league’s decision to shut out the team from prime time. “That’s what the league thinks of us,” he told reporters at the team’s annual celebrity golf tournament. But the executive also acknowledged the team couldn’t complain about the snub. The Saints would just have to go out and earn those opportu-

on the 1-mile oval for Hamlin, who won points races at Dover in 2024 and last year He also started from the pole when he won the All-Star Race in 2015 at Charlotte Motor Speedway At 45, Hamlin became the secondoldest winner of the All-Star Race after Mark Martin (who was 46 in 2005).

Erik Jones, who was involved in a nine-car crash to end the first segment, completed a top-three sweep by Toyota, followed by Austin Dillon and rookie Connor Zilisch.

Several crashes during the first two 75-lap segments collected more than half the 36-car field.

There were 19 drivers locked into the 200-lap dash for $1 million but Chase Elliott and Ross Chastain still were eliminated because their cars could not be repaired, and backups weren’t allowed.

The field was narrowed to 26 cars for the final segment Kyle Larson, Ryan Blaney, Kyle Busch, Brad Keselowski, Bubba Wallace and Christopher Bell started the last stage with cars that were damaged and slower than the rest.

Larson retired from the race with 60 laps remaining because of a power steering failure.

By winning an online fan vote, Daniel Suarez advanced to the final segment with a damaged car and finished four laps down.

Untimely exits

Elliott, voted eight times as the most popular driver in the Cup Series, was knocked out after his No. 9 Chevrolet was caught in two wrecks during the first segment.

“It was pretty wild,” said Elliott, the 2020 Cup Series champion and 2020 All-Star Race win-

nities, he said.

A year later, the Saints would likely be the first ones to admit they still haven’t fully reached that point. Throughout the offseason, Loomis and other members of the organization have cautioned against reading too much into the team’s four-game win streak down the stretch. The Saints ultimately finished 6-11, a one-win improvement from 2024.

Of course that record surpassed many of the expectations that predicted the Saints to be one of the worst teams in the NFL. But that alone doesn’t guarantee multiple spots in prime time.

“There’s a lot of talk about everything, but for me, I want to keep getting better,” Shough said last month. “I only played nine games I haven’t really shown anything yet.”

If there is an argument that the Saints did deserve more of a showcase, the case would start

ner “I hate to get caught up in that I knew better I saw it getting crazy I should have bailed.” Chastain was eliminated in a three-car crash on the sixth lap of the second segment.

“Bummer, because we thought we executed that first stage really well,” Chastain said. “We weren’t passing anybody, but we were able to maintain, which has not been the case for this downforce package. The car drove a lot better, so a lot to look forward to if we can take another step like that.”

Early crash

The event got off to a fiery start with a Lap 2 crash that involved three former All-Star Race winners. The wreck was triggered by Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing driver Ryan Preece, who came down the banking in Turn 1 and made contact with Todd Gilliland.

Larson, a three-time All-Star Race winner, hit the wall in his No. 5 Chevrolet after colliding with Gilliland’s No. 34 Ford. The pileup also included past All-Star winners and series champions Blaney and Elliott, as well as Daniel Suarez, John Hunter Nemechek and Michael McDowell.

Preece’s No. 60 Ford made a heavy impact with the outside wall, causing the rear end to erupt in flames. Preece climbed out unscathed and was quickly seen and released from the track’s infield care center “I’m fine, I seem to take big hits,” said Preece, who was involved in a memorable rollover in the August 2023 race at Daytona. “I don’t know what happened. But if it was anything, it was probably just too close on my part to go into Turn 1 and just got sideways. So if it was my fault, I’m sorry.”

with Shough. Promising young quarterbacks not only bring hope, they sell games. Look at the New York Giants, who were rewarded with four prime-time games after Jaxson Dart’s promising rookie season. And in his case, Shough finished ahead of Dart in voting for Offensive Rookie of the Year

But there are differences. This offseason, the Giants notably hired John Harbaugh a bigname coach who figures to provide a baseline of competence that should keep the Giants more competitive in that spotlight. And there’s no doubt New York is a bigger market than New Orleans, even if market size doesn’t solely factor into being awarded primetime contests. (The New York Jets were surprisingly not given a night game.)

And at least Shough was fortunate enough that the Saints will get to play on “Monday Night Football.”

Neither Tennessee’s Cam Ward nor Las Vegas’ Fernando Mendoza the first overall picks in backto-back drafts — saw their teams get chosen for prime time.

“Not to be flip, but we don’t draft our way into prime time,” North said. For the Saints’ perception to truly change, they simply have to start winning again.

Case in point: the Jacksonville Jaguars. Though they’re another small-market team, Jacksonville’s dramatic turnaround in 2025 left networks clamoring.

The Jaguars were awarded three prime-time spots after having just one last season.

“They earned them,” North said. “You play your way into prime time.”

“I just told him, I hope today is the last day off he ever has at LSU,” Johnson said. “Unfortunately, we’re in a position (where) you can make that decision that’s definitely best for him.”

Serna has been dealing with a back injury since the South Carolina series He sat out LSU’s final midweek game against Tulane because of the ailment Johnson said that he’ll be ready to go on Tuesday against Oklahoma “It’s probably better to get him in position to play on Tuesday,” Johnson said, “and try to play as many games as we can there than use him today.”

Eye-popping pitching stats

Without Schmidt or Evans available to start this weekend, matters got even worse for LSU on the mound.

Florida pushed 37 runs across the board across the three-game series. LSU pitchers surrendered 35 earned runs in 25 innings, posting a 12.60 ERA with 23 walks and 10 home runs allowed.

It was a continuation of the Tigers’ struggles last week in Athens, Georgia, when they registered a 14.32 ERA against Georgia. But their issues on the mound extend past the last two weeks. In the five series in which LSU has been swept over the last six weeks, the pitching staff had a 10.46 ERA, walked 103 batters and gave up 38 home runs in 123 innings.

“I believe in some of the pitchers that can return, but they have to get better They have to get a lot better,” Johnson said. “And they know it, and they want to get better And we’re going to make sure that we do

everything in our power to put them in a position to be successful. And I think there are guys that can be a lot better than they are.”

Was that it for Milam?

If Saturday was Steven Milam’s final game at Alex Box Stadium, the Tigers shortstop finished it off with a bang. The junior went 2-for-5 with a three-run home run in his last at-bat in the ninth inning

But what if that wasn’t it for Milam? He didn’t crack MLB.com’s top-150 draft rankings, and he didn’t make The Athletic’s top100 draft prospects list either

Since the question has been raised, Johnson has insisted that there is no chance that Milam will return to school. But LSU fans on Saturday still chanted “one more year” during his at-bat in the eighth inning.

“Somebody’s going to give him $2 million,” Johnson said. “I mean, I appreciate (the chant).

“He loves it here. That’s the one thing we have going for us.

It’s just, I don’t think 30 teams are going to mess it up.”

The stakes vs. Oklahoma

Oklahoma came into the week as a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament field, meaning that its spot in the tourney was secure even after losing two of three games to Tennessee this weekend.

There’s not a lot riding on Tuesday’s game for the Sooners, since their odds of hosting a regional are next to nothing. But don’t be surprised if Oklahoma turns to its usual Friday starter, right-hander

LJ Mercurius, on Tuesday Mercurius only threw one inning in relief against Tennessee on Saturday

Email Koki Riley at koki.riley@ theadvocate.com For more LSU sports updates, sign up for our newsletter at theadvocate. com/lsunewsletter

RABALAIS

from page 1C

But the Hokies, the Tigers and everyone watching knew this was something huge, something too big for Virginia Tech to overcome. The kind of moment that so often defines monumental victories, like the 7-2 decision that went LSU’s way Sunday afternoon.

“I tell them all the time,” LSU coach Beth Torina said. “That’s the kind of play you’re going to have to have on the way to the (Women’s) College World Series.”

The Tigers are still many miles away from the Women’s College World Series. There’s first the matter of a little detour to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, this coming weekend to take on Alabama, the No. 1 overall seed in the entire NCAA tournament, in the super regional round.

But to the victor go the spoils. And the dreams. After the way the Tigers (40-17) played and pitched this weekend, outscoring Akron and Virginia Tech twice by a combined tally of 232, why not dial up the imagination as big as it can go?

“We trained all season for this moment,” senior catcher Maci Bergeron said, clearly not willing to let it end now One of the things you need to make a deep run into the softball or baseball postseason is pitching depth. LSU displayed a bumper crop of that in the pitcher’s circle this weekend. The Tigers got complete game shutouts in the first two games from Jayden Heavener and Cece Cellura to zip up the Zips and handle the Hokies in matching 8-0, 8-0 runrule decisions.

Virginia Tech touched LSU Sunday starter Paytn Monticelli

Ohtani getting on track with season-high 5 RBIs vs. Angels

BY DAN GREENSPAN Associated Press

ANAHEIM, Calif A few days off seems to have helped Shohei Ohtani get on track as the Los Angeles Dodgers slugger drove in a season-high five runs against his old team Saturday night.

Ohtani went 2 for 4 with two walks and scored two runs in the Dodgers’ 15-2 win over the Angels — and even had a Little League home run in the eighth inning.

“We were hoping to get a reset with a couple days off,” manager Dave Roberts said, “and I think that’s what happened.”

With another large contingent of Dodgers fans in attendance for the second game of the three-game Freeway Series, Ohtani got back to his highlight-reel self late in the

game. He ripped a ball into the right field corner in the eighth and it took an awkward bounce off the netting down the first-base line.

Jo Adell didn’t play the ball at first, calling for a ground-rule double. But when no ruling was made, Adell was left trying to play catchup. His throw into the infield wasn’t on target, allowing Ohtani to score on the error after a two-run triple.

The netting down to both foul poles is a new addition to Angel Stadium this season and was not here when Ohtani won two American League MVP awards in six seasons with the Angels from 2018-23.

“I just kept running,” Ohtani said through a translator in a postgame television interview

Angels manager Kurt Suzuki challenged the play in vain, hoping a fan had touched the ball when it hit the net before going back into play

Ohtani then cracked a double with the bases loaded in the ninth, drawing “MVP” chants while notching his first game with five RBIs since June 22, 2025. It was his third extra-base hit in two games, including a double in the fifth inning on Friday, after getting one in the first 12 games in May

The loss of power started during an 0-for-17 slump from April 29-May 4.

“Just happy to be performing in front of both Dodger fans and Angels fans,” Ohtani said. “I’m really happy I was able to contribute a lot today.”

a vagabond right-hander with previous stints at Wisconsin and Oklahoma for two early runs. But after a two-out RBI single from Foster in the second inning, Monticelli set down the final 16 Hokies, a streak that owed its existence to Franklin’s fireworks.

“I saw her smile in the third inning,” Torina said of Monticelli, “and I said, ‘All right, we’re good.’ ” Good may not be good enough for the Tigers to survive a super regional test at Alabama (51-7), a team that LSU did not face in the regular season or the SEC tournament. But that’s a worry for another day Sunday was a day for the Tigers to give thanks for their 11th super regional appearance. They’re still two huge wins short of returning to the WCWS for the first time in nine years. But the point is, they made it this far One year earlier, Torina was fighting through the emotions and her players were fighting back tears after getting eliminated from another home NCAA regional by two losses to upstart in-state rival Southeastern. It is fun being the Goliath in the state until David shows up with a loaded slingshot.

In this regional, this year, David had to go look for another mark somewhere else, as the seat everyone figured was getting hot in Torina’s office is now turned cool once again. The Tigers are moving on to the next weekend, one of the last 16 teams still playing.

Still looking for that next special, momentum-making play

“I hope we have one next weekend,” Torina said, with a smile that will last all the way from Tiger Park to Tuscaloosa.

Email Scott Rabalais at srabalais@theadvocate.com

REGIONAL

Continued from page 1C

LSU didn’t even make it to Sunday in last year’s regional, falling twice to No. 4 seed Southeastern. After a slow start against a tough schedule, it finished strong and took it up a notch once the regionals began with run-rule victories in the first two games.

“We trained all season long for this moment this weekend,” said Bergeron, who had six hits in 10 at-bats in her final performance before the home fans. “I’m super proud of everyone. We executed and had a lot of energy in the dugout. I couldn’t ask for a better team and coaching staff to be around.”

Virginia Tech (48-12) took an early 2-0 lead with single runs in the first and second innings, but Monticelli (9-3) did not allow another base runner She struck out two and walked none despite some early butterflies.

“I was nervous,” said Monticelli, whose path led from Wisconsin to Oklahoma and finally Baton Rouge. “Butterflies, it was all good feelings I wasn’t playing scared. It was easy to settle in after that first inning because my teammates had my back and gave me the breathing room. I needed to take a breath, take a second and realize I was OK.”

Torina, who spent her first game in the third base coaching box this season, said she knew Monticelli would be OK when she “saw her smile” after the second run.

“After the two runs, she slowed down,” Torina said. “Her pace was super fast the first two innings. I got on her a little bit. When I saw her smile, I thought ‘Oh, we’re good, we’re fine, she’s smiling.’” The Tigers put up four runs in the third in a rally started by Lassiter’s solo home run to left field. Bergeron drilled a two-run single to make it 3-0 before Ally Hutchins added a run-scoring double. RBIs by Lassiter and Sierra Daniel in the fifth padded the lead and

another run scored on an error in the sixth. LSU had 12 hits and at least two baserunners in every inning, keeping up the pressure with four walks and a hit batter Monticelli made it stand up, cruising through the order with a strong pitching mix and flawless defense, highlighted by Alix Franklin’s home run-robbing catch at the right-field wall in the fifth. Franklin snagged the ball before crashing into the wall on a high drive by Addison Foster Lassiter ran over from center field and bear-hugged her afterward.

“Jalia and I have practiced balls at the wall I don’t know how many times,” said Franklin, who was moved to tears recalling the hug from her teammate. “Shout out to Easton (Lonibos) who hits them to us. I couldn’t believe it. It was so awesome, I had never played outfield before. To make that catch was really cool.”

LSU pitching held the Hokies, who entered the regional fifth in the nation with 105 dingers without a homer in 13 innings.

PROVIDED IMAGE

THEDEPTHS OF HISTORY

This steamboathad multiple identities before sinkinginBayou Teche. What’s itsstory?

BY ROBIN MILLER Staff writer

Stories of Civil War gunboatbattles along Bayou Teche havenot been lost to history

After all, the bayou was a vital economic artery in south Louisiana, as well as agateway into the state’sinterior, which made it acontested route between theUnionand Confederacy.So, Josh Hall wasn’tatall surprised to learn that aformer armored Civil Warboat is buried beneath the bayou’smuddy bottom and bank in New Iberia.

Still, he wasn’tfamiliar with the boat’shistory

“This boat was called theTeche, but that was just oneofits identities,”the Lafayette reader said.“I’velooked it up, and I’m findingthat it wentby several names, anditwas used fora different purpose undereach of those names. And now it’sburiedinBayou Teche. What’s its story?”

Neverskirmished

Though Bayou Techeisthis boat’s final resting place, it neverskirmished on the southwestLouisiana waterway. And its connection to the state really begins at the end ofits story when, in 2005, New Iberia architect Paul Allain

discovered its wreckage.

According to theCharles E. Pearson’sreport in the 2006 Bulletin of theLouisiana Archaeological Society, theboat, called the “Teche,” was discovered in November 2005 during construction of abulkhead for aproposed marinesewagepump-out facilityalong the bayou in New Iberia.

Pearson’sreport said Allain was overseeing the project, which was funded by theUnited States Fish and Wildlife Service and the Louisiana Division of Wildlife and Fisheries.

“The wreckage was discovered on the first day of construction when thecontractor recognized apiece of boat structure in thematerial being removed from Bayou Teche with a

Ahistorical marker along the NewIberia Boardwalkat Weeks Street commemorates the site of the sunken steamboat Teche in the Bayou Teche. The boat servedinboth the Confederate and Union navies during the CivilWar and wasused as atransport boat at the timeofits wreck.

bucket dredge,”Pearson wrote.

Coastal Environments Inc., of Baton Rouge, was then hired to research the sitein2006 to determine its National Register eligibility.The wreck has since been designated the “New Iberia Shipwreck,” aLouisiana archaeological site at thefoot of Weeks Street on thewestern side of Bayou Teche. Beneath4feetofmud

Today,the wreck is nestled beneath 4feet of mud at Bayou Teche Boardwalk at Weeks Street in New Iberia’s historic district.It’scommemorated by ahistorical marker installed by the Iberia Parish Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Artistsreunite on Dayofthe Dead in newMet Opera

SILVERMAN

BYMIKE

Associated Press

Racked by unrelenting pain, Mexicanpainter FridaKahlo wrote in her diary shortly before she died: “I joyfully await the exit —and hope never to return. Yetreturn she does —if only briefly —onthe Day of the Deadin“El Último Sueño de Frida yDiego” (“The Last Dream of Frida and Diego”),

aSpanish-language opera receiving its Metropolitan Opera premiere this May The opera, with libretto by playwright Nilo Cruz and music by Gabriela Lena Frank, imagines Kahlo’sspectral reunionthree years afterher death with Diego Rivera, the greatMexican muralist with whom shehad atempestuous romantic relationship

In shelters, newborn kittensare uniquely vulnerable

Aworkshop aims to change that

BY MAURAFOX

Isabel Leonard as Frida Kalho, foreground center,and Carlos Álvarez as DiegoRivera performinarehearsal for ‘ElÚltimo Sueño de Frida yDiego’atthe Metropolitan Opera in Newyork

SAN DIEGO It was about17 yearsago that Hannah Shaw found ablack kitten stuck in a tree in aPhiladelphia park. She didn’tknow how to care for the little cat,which had one of its eyes sealed shut with an infection —but her friend advised her not to bring it to alocal animal shelter,where it could be euthanized forits young age. So she adopted it and named it Coconut, or Coco forshort. It’s theclassic story—a kitten rescued after getting stuck in a tree— andit could have endedthere

But forShaw, the moment set her lifeon anew track, one focused on helping especially young kittens that require around-theclock specialized care.

29%

The share of deaths by neonatal kittens —under 4 weeks old—at catshelters, which was the largest share.

“(Coco) was my best friend for15years,” Shaw said. “She’s the reason that Iopened my eyes to this issue.”

Shaw is now the founder of the Orphan Kitten Club, aSan Diego-based nonprofit she started in 2016 dedicated to providing kitten resources to animal shelters around the country,including funding for staffing, kitten formulaand medical treatment At the beginning of the month, Orphan Kitten Club partnered with the San Diego Humane Society for athree-day workshop for11animalshelters to learn techniques for caring fornewborn kittensuptoeight weeks old, the time in acat’slifewhen it’smost vulnerable.

In 2025, neonatal kittens under 4weeks old—accounted for the largest share of cat deaths in animal shelters in the U.S., at 29%,according to ShelterAnimals Countdata. Weaned kittens, from 4to8weeks old, accounted foranother 21%.

“This populationhas been categorized as unhealthy and untreatable,” Shaw said. “So Orphan Kitten Club exists to change that.”

After Shaw rescued Coco, she became her neighborhood’sgoto whenever akitten was found in need —somuchthatshe was dubbed “the kitten lady,” anamethat has stuck over the years. Entirely self-taught and with adegree in psychology, she’swritten several books and offers educational materials on kitten care on her website.

The Orphan Kitten Club’s workshop at the Humane Society providedparticipants an education on several subjects, including how to bottle-train kittens without mothers, tactics forpreventing and treating diseases and how to build engagement with foster families for the kittens. Such kittensare achallenging demographic to care for, Shaw explained. They need to be fed every two hours, andsome are so dependent they can’tregulate their ownbody temperature. They’re especially susceptible to infection, and their rate of decline is faster than an adult cat if they do get sick —sokeeping themina clean environment is also important.

That can be easier saidthan done, especially at ashelter “An animal shelter is where

Findingtreatment forshy bladder syndrome

Dear Doctors: My son is struggling with paruresis,and ithas taken over his life. He cannot work, avoids family gatherings and feels like he can’tplan for relationships or marriage. When he saw adoctor, he was givena booklet but no treatment plan. We urgently need help finding a specialist Dear reader: Paruresis is asocial anxiety disorder in which someone has trouble urinatingwhen another person is present.This has led to the more common namefor thecondition, shy bladdersyndrome. On the mild side, people struggle to void theirbladder.They may have false startsor delayed urination when they fear they may be overheard. In severe cases, people are onlyabletourinate at home and when they are

By The Associated Press

Today is Monday,May 18, the 138th day of 2026.There are 227 days left in the year

Todayinhistory:

On May 18, 1980, the Mount St.Helens volcano in Washington state erupted, leaving an estimated 57 people dead or missing.

Also on this date: In 1863, the Siege of Vicksburg began during the Civil War, endingonJuly 4 with aUnion victory that gave its forces control of the Mississippi River In 1896, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Plessy v. Ferguson, endorsed “separate but equal” racial segregation (The decision was reversed in 1954 by Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka.)

In 1927, in America’s deadliest school attack, part of aschoolhouse in Bath Township, Michigan, was blown up with explosives planted by local farmer Andrew Kehoe, who then set off abomb in his truck; the attacks killed 38 children and six adults, including Kehoe, who’d earlier killed his wife. (Authorities said

OPERA

Continued from page1D

In atwist on the Orpheus legend,Rivera has grown weary of life without Kahlo and—onthe holidaythat honors the dead and welcomes the return of their spirits —hesummons her from the underworld in the hope they may be eternally reunited.

For mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard, who stars as Kahlo, the opera is “a journeyof emotions that every human can possess, told through the lens or perspective of iconic humans that many of us admire.”

Joining her in the cast are baritone Carlos Álvarezas Rivera, soprano Gabriella Reyes as Catrina,gatekeeper to the underworld, and countertenor Nils Wanderer as Leonardo, aspirit who impersonates Greta Garbo. Met music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts six of the seven performances Thursday through June 5, with the May 30 matinee broadcast to cinemas worldwide in HD.

Twodecades in themaking

The idea for the work dates back more than 20 years, whenthe late Joel Revzen, then director of the Arizona Opera, asked Frank to write an opera about Kahlo.

Thecollaboratorsagreed they wanted to avoid conventional approaches and instead leaned into magical realism.

“I wasn’tinterested in writing abiopic,” Cruz said.“We had the movie with Salma Hayek …and I’d seen acouple of monologuesthat had to do with Frida and her life

“So this whole conceptof Diego approaching the end of his life, especially on the Day of the Dead,Ithought was interesting,” he said. “I think opera shouldbebigger than life, so anything that’smythical makes for agood opera.”

In setting Cruz’stext, Frank said she steered away from melodies and rhythms that would too closely echo traditional Latin music.

Dr.Elizabeth Ko Dr.Eve Glazier ASK THE DOCTORS

certain that they are completely alone.

Althoughthe exact number of peopleaffected is unknown, it’s believed that shy bladder syndrome is acommon form of social anxiety.Some studies suggest that up to aquarter of people in the United States have experienced it to some degree. People of all ages and all genders can have the condition.Itisseen more

TODAYINHISTORY

Kehoe was seeking revenge for losing atownship clerk election )

In 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a measurecreating theTennessee Valley Authority, thelargest public utilityin America.

In 1973, Harvard law professorArchibald Cox was appointed Watergate special prosecutor by U.S. Attorney General Elliot Richardson.

In 1981, theNew York Native, abiweekly newspaper directed toward gay menand lesbians, carried astory informing of “an exotic new disease” among LGBTQ+ people;itwas the first published report about what cametobeknown as AIDS.

In 1998,the U.S. government filed an antitrust case againstMicrosoft, saying the powerful software company hada“chokehold” on competitors thatwas denying consumers important choices abouthow they bought and usedcomputers (The JusticeDepartment and Microsoftreacheda settlement in 2001 )

Mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard as FridaKalho, foreground center, and baritoneCarlos Álvarez as DiegoRiveraperformin arehearsal for ‘El Último Sueño de Frida yDiego.

“WhatI wantedtoconvey instead was something very colorful,somethingthat soundedotherworldly,sometimesancient,” she said

“You will hear alot of instruments you won’t always hear in opera,”Franksaid.

“The marimba is in almost every scene …Itmight be coveringthe clarinet lineor the voice and you didn’trealize it was there. Butitmakes it sound to me asifit’sfrom Central America.”

In praisingthe score, New Yorker critic Alex Ross wrote that “the challenge of interminglingbiography and myth might have defeated aless adroit composer. Onecan imaginea score cluttered with Mexican folkloric effectsand supernatural noises. Instead, Frank establishes adreamlike,liminal mood from the start.”

‘Ainadamar’teamreunion

Theopera had its COVIDdelayedpremiere in San Diego in 2022. It was ahuge success,and theoriginal productionhas been performed in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago andelsewhere.

When theMet decided to stageit, general manager PeterGelb hired the team that worked on Osvaldo Golijov’s

often in men than in women. The public placement of urinals in men’s bathroomsmay play arole in why that is. In thebody,urination begins in asmall region in thebrainstem known as Barrington’snucleus. This is where nerve impulses start that relax theurinary sphincter.Inshy bladder syndrome, anxietyinterferes with those crucial signals. Without this signal from thebrain, voluntary release of the sphincter becomes difficult or even impossible.

Unfortunately,ashas happened to your son, shy bladder syndromecan have amajor effect on qualityoflife. People often begin to avoid social interactions and large gatherings and may even limit hydration. This can also lead to healthproblems, such as a

KITTENS

In 2018, a17-year-old armed with ashotgun and apistol opened fire at a Houston-area high school, killing eight studentsand two teachers.

In 2018, aBoeing 737 chartered by Cuba’snational airline from aMexican company crashed ashort distance from Havana’s Jose Marti Airport,killing all but one of 113 people on board. Cuban aviation officials later said errors in calculating the weight and balance of the plane led the crew to lose control of the aircraft during takeoff.

Today’sbirthdays: Baseball Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson is 80. Musician Rick Wakeman (Yes) is 77. Musician-composer Mark Mothersbaugh (Devo) is 76. Country musician George Strait is 74. Actor Chow Yun-Fat is 71. Hockey Hall of Famer Jari Kurri is 66. Tennis Hall of Famer Yannick Noah is 66. Comedianwriter Tina Fey is 56. Rock singer Jack Johnson is 51. Figure skater AlinaZagitovais24. Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter is 23. Actor Hala Finley is 17.

“Ainadamar” in 2024 —director and choreographer DeborahColkerand setdesignerJon Bausor—tocreateanew production. Bausor andWilberth Gonzalez collaborated on thecostumes

“It’snot anything against the original,” Gelbsaid. “But when youhavea work as importantand appealingasthis there’snoreason whythere shouldn’tbemorethanone production. It’s asign of its artistic success.”

Findinginspiration

Bausorsaid his inspiration forthe setdesign was an oil painting by Kahlo titled “Tree of Hope, RemainStrong” that depicts two Fridas.One shows her in an elegant Mexican dress seated on ahospital gurney thatrestsoncracked earth.

Another Frida liesbehind her on the gurney,swaddled in sheets with angry red stitches in herback— areminder of the constant pain shesuffered after a1925 bus collision with astreetcar

There’snoliteral treein thepainting, but thetitle gave Bausor the idea for one of thecenterpieces of his set:alarge, bloodred tree with twisting branches and rootsthat resemble arteries of the human body

The sides and rear of the stage are draped in recycledblue plastic that Bausor calls “a kind of shroud, or blue gauze like you might wrap wounds in.”

Above the stage is amirror,anod to the one that was installed under thecanopy of Kahlo’sbed to help her paint while she was immobilized from the accident.

And like the Kahlo painting, the stage hascracks from which dancers dressed as skeletons emerge, moving their joints in jerky fashion abit like break dancers. Despite its ghostly scenario, theopera has ahappy ending of sorts: It grants the lovers the reunionindeath that was denied them in reality.Riverawanted to be cremated andhavehis ashes mixed with Kahlo’s, but his family refused and buried him in acemetery

higher risk of urinary tract infections. Treatment of paruresis often begins with learning relaxation techniques to reduce anxiety.For somepeople, exploring the problem and possible triggers in psychotherapy can help. Graduated exposure therapy has also been found to be effective. Graduated exposure therapy is astep-bystep program of desensitization. Adding antianxiety medications to any of these approaches has also been found to be helpful. It is frustrating that the medical care your son sought fell short. The good newsisthat, with appropriateand consistent treatment, relief is possible for manypeople. It would be agood idea foryour son to start by seeing his primary care physician. They can rule out

any physical causes. Issues such as bladder outlet obstruction or pelvic floor dysfunction can cause difficulties in starting aurine stream

The International Paruresis Association, anonprofit health organization, is also agreat resource. They offer awide range of educational materials and workshops. They also maintain listings of medical specialists, including somevirtual care options. Youcan find moreinformation at paruresis.org.

Send yourquestions to askthedoctors@mednet.ucla. edu, or write: Ask theDoctors, c/oUCLA HealthSciences Media Relations, 10880 Wilshire Blvd.,Suite 1450, Los Angeles, CA, 90024.

Continuedfrom page1D

alot of sick animals go,” Shaw said. “When ababy kittencomes in, it’skind of like bringing your newborn to amusic festival.”

That’swhy the Orphan Kitten Club aims to teach animalshelter staffhow to support young kittens and give themthe best chance at life.

Kitten season —when the mostkittens are born —typically lastsduring the warmer months from the spring throughfall, butin

CURIOUS

Continuedfrom page1D

That’swhere it is now, but how did it get there?

The vessel’sstorybegins in 1860 as asidewheel steamboat called the Tom Sugg, which operated as amerchant vessel in Arkansas.

In records compiled by theEncyclopedia of Arkansas, thevessel measured morethan 91 feet long and 22 feet wide. By the spring of 1862, the boat was commissioned theCSS TomSugg, serving in the Confederate Navy’sfleet in Arkansas.

“Captain John W. Dunnington ‘armored’ it with cottonbales and mounted an 8-inch cannon on itsbow so that it could be used againstMajor General Samuel R. Curtis’ Army of the Southwest,” theEncyclopedia of Arkansascontinues. “While thereare no reports thatthe TomSugg sawaction during this period, it continued to serve the Confederacy on theWhite and Little Redrivers.”

That is, until 1863, when Union Forces captured and confiscated it on the White River,then transported it to theU.S. Naval Basein Cairo, Illinois.

“The navy purchased it from an Illinois prize court for $7,000 on September 29, 1863, at the urging of Rear Admiral David Dixon Porter,who said that the steamboat was

San Diego it can be yearround thanks to themild weather,Shaw said.

“It’s areally interesting city for kittens,” she said. “Wehave someofthe highest need but also someof the best resources.”

Fostering young kittens can be agame-changer sincetheyneed regular care anditgivesthem the chance socialize with other cats. Many can’tbeadopted until they’re eight weeks old.

Shaw encourages people to sign up to be fosters —and to calllocal organizations like the FeralCat Coalition to comespay and

‘an excellent vessel, and will makeone of our most useful gunboats,’ the Tom Sugg’sname waschanged to (USS) Tensas,” the encyclopedia states.

Didn’tsee action here

Though the USS Tensas didn’tsee action in Louisiana, Porter,the admiral who sang the boat’spraises, was asignificant figure in the Union’s1864 Red River Campaign that stretched through the state.

While Gen.Nathaniel Banks commanded the Union Army’sfailed effort that resulted in the burning of Alexandria, Porter headed the U.S. Navy, whose fleet of 14 ironclads and 20 tinclads found themselves stranded in Alexandria on the north side of the Red River’srapids during low water season. This situation resulted in Union Col. Joseph Bailey’s construction of amakeshiftdam that rose water levels just high enough to get the boats to the other side of the rapids. Though it was an embarrassment to the Navy, Bailey’sfeat is still considered amilitary engineering masterpiece today

It was Porter who,a year before the Red River Campaign, encouraged the navy to convert the USS Tensas to atinclad gunboat and arm it with apair of 24-pounder howitzers. The boat was commissioned on Jan. 1, 1865, in Mound City, Illinois, and Acting Master E.C. VanPelt commanded it

neuter cats in the community to address theproblemat its root. “There’stoo many coming in,” she said. She hopes the Orphan Kitten Club can expand to a point wherethe workisn’t so needed.She says she does it less for the love of cats she doesn’tlike cats any more than any other animal —than to serve as abridge to get the kittens stable.

“It’sabout recognizing a vulnerable state that somebody is in,” she said. “Once you get to 8weeks, it’sall smooth sailing. So it’s like building this bridge to get them there. That’swhat it’s about forme.”

on the Mississippi River for the remainder of the war. Then came the boat’s third and final iteration as the Teche, along with its journey to its bayou namesake.

BroughttoNew Iberia The Tensas washauled back to Mound City after the war, where it was decommissioned on Aug. 7, 1865. Shortly after,New Iberia businessman E.B. Trinidad of NewIberia bought it at auction for $6,200. He was the one whorenamed the boat the Teche and used it to transport goods through his Attakapas Mail Transportation Co. It wrecked and sank in Bayou Teche in 1868. And that’swhere it’s been since. Author Shane K. Bernard, in his 2016 book, “Teche: AHistory of Louisiana’sMost Famous Bayou,” states that “parts of the vessel have been excavated, including asection of the keel.” But the remainder continues to rest in amuddy grave beneath the murky waters of the Bayou Teche.

Do you haveaquestion about something in Louisiana that’sgot you curious? Email your question to curiouslouisiana@ theadvocate.com. Include yourname, phone number and thecitywhere you live.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20) Put your energy to workfor you.Focus on finishing what youstart and surpassing expectations. An open mind andstellar plan will push youtothe winner's circle.

GEMINI(May 21-June 20) Knowledge and experienceare powerful, and your ability to dance circles around others will help you gainmomentum and add value to your portfolio.Thinking ahead will help you stay in front of the crowd.

CANCER (June 21-July 22) Look at every angleofasituation before youget involved. Adisciplined attitude will give you the leverage necessary to zigzag your way to victory.

LEO (July 23-Aug.22) Everything is yours to discover if you open your eyes, ask questions and use your imagination to createthe life and conditions you wish for. Choose to act instead of taking the paththat leadsnowhere.

VIRGO(Aug. 23-Sept. 22) Ask questions, and consider the outcome of achange before youcommit. Nothing will be as it appears. Alast-minute adjustment will signal that you should probably take astep back and reconsider your next move.

LIBRA (Sept.23-Oct.23) Live and learn. Experience is what you gain when you communicate, volunteer andinitiate changes that willjump-start alull in your life. Be the one to stoke the flameand make people think.

SCORPIO (Oct.24-Nov. 22) Put your energy into discovery, learning andverifying information to ensure you make head-

wayinstead of creatingchaos. Look for opportunities to travel or learnsomething new.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov.23-Dec. 21) Consider howtobalancesituationsbyimplementing lifestyle changes that complement what you aretrying to achieve without jeopardizing what those you love are strugglingwith

CAPRICORN (Dec.22-Jan. 19) Don't trust hearsay; getwhatyou want in writing. Someone will use falseadvertising to attract attention. Don't buy into someone else's inflated version of what'spossible.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb.19) Make things happen. You're sitting in an excellent position, so don'twaste time.Alifestyle change willboost your energy,moodand idea of what you want your scheduleto look like.

PISCES (Feb. 20-March 20) Take amoment to analyze the situations around you beforeyou participate. Problems will erupt at home as well as when you indulge in conversations that involve your beliefs,passions and peopleyou love.

ARIES (March 21-April 19) Originality, drive anddesire will help you turn athought into something new and exciting. Share your intentions. Self-improvement is favored

The horoscope, an entertainment feature, is not based on scientific fact. ©2026 by nEa, inc., dist. By andrews mcmeel syndication

CelebrityCipher cryptograms are created from quotations by famous people,pastand present. Each letter in the cipher stands foranother.

TODAy'S CLUE:N EQUALS P

Sudoku

InstructIons: sudoku is anumber-placing puzzle basedona9x9 grid with severalgiven numbers. Theobject is to place the numbers 1to9 in the empty squaressothat each row, each column and each 3x3 boxcontains the same number only once. Thedifficulty level of the sudoku increases from monday to sunday

Saturday’s Puzzle Answer

BY PHILLIPALDER Bridge

Partner opens,say, one heart, the next player passes, and you respond two spades. What are you showing? Therearetypicallytwoanswerstothat question: aweak or strong hand. Aweakjumpshiftshowsasix-cardsuit and some 4-8high-card points. Butthis week, let’s look at the strong variety. In theold days, astrong jump shift promised 17-19 points. However, it is much bettertouse a13-16-point range: sufficient to insist on game,but then wanting partner to decide whether to go higher. (More on why tomorrow.) The responder has one of twohandtypes:anexcellent one-suiter with six or more cards in his suit,ora good twosuiterwithfive or six cards in hisown suit and four or five in partner’s suit. With the two-suiter, he rebids in partner’s suit.Withthe one-suiter, responder does something else, usually rebidding in his suit or in no-trump. In this deal, South learns all about his partner’s hand and should have no trouble settling into seven no-trump. After West leads the diamond queen, how should declarer play? South can count 14(!) tricks via five spades, five hearts, two diamonds and two clubs. Theonly danger is a4-0

wuzzles

spadebreak.But declarer can avoid a loser whatever the position as long as he starts with dummy’s ace (or king). This keeps one high honor in each hand to capture an opponent’s lower honor (the jack). South can finesse either way to stop thatjack from taking atrick. ©2026 by nEa, inc.,dist. By andrewsmcmeel syndication

Each Wuzzleisaword riddle which creates adisguised word, phrase, name, place, saying, etc. For example: nOOn gOOD =gOOD aFTErnOOn

Previous answers:

word game

InsTRucTIons: 1. Words must be of four or more letters. 2. Words that acquire four letters by the addition of “s,”suchas“bats” or “dies,”are notallowed. 3. additional words made by adding a“d” or an “s” may notbeused. 4. proper nouns, slang words, or vulgar or sexually explicit words are notallowed.

ToDAY’s WoRD FosTER: FOSS-ter: Encourage; promote thegrowthor development of.

Can you find 17 or more words in FOSTER?

dIrectIons: make a2-to 7-letter word from the letters in each row. add points of each word, using scoring directions at right. Finally, 7-letter words get 50-point bonus. “Blanks” used as any letter have no point value. all the words are in the Official sCraBBlE® players Dictionary, 5th Edition. For more informationontournamentsand clubs, email naspa –northamerican sCraBBlE playersassociation: info@scrabbleplayers.org. Visitour website: www.scrabbleplayers.org. For puzzle inquiriescontact scrgrams@gmail.com Hasbro andits logo sCraBBlE associated

ken ken

InstructIons: 1 -Eachrow and each column must contain the numbers 1thorugh 4(easy) or 1through 6 (challenging) without repeating. 2 -The numbers within the heavily outlinedboxes, called cages must combine using the given operation (in any order) to producethe targetnumbers in the top-left corners 3 -Freebies: Fill in the single-box cages with the numberinthe top-left corner.

WiShinG Well

HErE is aplEasanT liTTlE

Saturday’s Puzzle Answer

y

$68.18

q No.39, bounded byBen‐jamin, Hillary, Hurst, and AdamsStreets, being designated buythe letter “J”and accordingto a survey made by Adlor Orr, CivilEngineer,dated June 1, 1948, said lot“J” begins at adistanceof OneHundred Nineteen feet,seven inches and five linesfromthe corner of Benjamin andHillary Street,witha fronton BejaminStreet of Eigh‐teen feet,one inch,three linesrunning in thedi‐rectionofAdams Street having awidth in the rear of twenty feet,one inch and0 linesand hav‐inga depthonthe side line nearesttoAdams Street of OneHundred fiftyfeet,0 inches and0 linesand with adepth on theoppositesidelinead‐jacent to Lot“H” on said blue printofOne hun‐dred fiftyfeet,one inch andtwo lines. Said lot beingcomposedofpart of original lotNo. 13. Beingthe same property acquired by Frederick ToebelmanfromJohnB Kumphreys, by actbe‐fore E. Commagere,No‐tary Public,onMay 9, 1892 andregisteredin COB144, Folio61. Andbeing thesame property acquired by Protestant Home from theAgedinthe Succes‐sion of FrederickToebel‐man, No.280-470 of the docket of theCivil Dis‐trict Courtfor theParish of Orleans, registered in COB560, Folio61. Improvements thereon bear theMunicipalNo. 7616 Benjamin Street NewOrleans,Louisiana 70118. UPON THEFOLLOWING TERMSAND CONDITIONS TO-WIT: ONEHUNDRED TWENTY THOUSAND ANDNO/100 ($120,000.00) DOLLARS, cash,for theSucces‐sion’s one-quarter(¼)in‐

with law. By Orderofthe Court, CLERKOFCOURT Attorney:Clara VanHorn Publication: TheAdvo‐cate/The TimesPicayune Address: KOCH & SCHMIDT, L.L.C. 650 PoydrasStreet,Suite 2660 NewOrleans,Louisiana 70130 (504) 208-9040 185553-apr17-may18-2t $129.54 PUBLIC NOTICE CIVILDISTRICTCOURT FORTHE PARISH OF OR‐LEANS STATEOFLOUISIANA NO.2006-05539 DIVISION “N SECTION“8” SUCCESSION OF EARL JOSEPH THOMAS FILED: DEPUTY CLERK NOTICE TO SELL IMMOVABLEPROPERTY AT PRIVATESALE WHEREAS, theAdminis‐

and AdamsStreets, being designated buythe letter “J”and accordingto a survey made by Adlor Orr, CivilEngineer,dated June 1, 1948, said lot“J” begins at adistanceof OneHundred Nineteen feet,seven inches and five

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