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National Guard deployment in New Orleans extended for six months

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The Louisiana National Guard announced Monday that 120 troops will remain deployed in New Orleans through August.

The six-month extension comes after 350 Guard members deployed to New Orleans in late December, in the run-up to New Year’s and other high-profile events like the Sugar Bowl. The troops, which had mainly clustered in the city’s historic French Quarter, had been scheduled to depart in the aftermath of Mardi Gras.

New Orleans is one of several Democrat-run cities, such as Washington and Memphis, Tennessee, where the federal government deployed armed troops under the administration of President Donald Trump. Hundreds of federal agents also converged on Louisiana in December as part of a separate immigration crackdown in and around New Orleans.

During his State of the Union address last week, Trump touted the deployment in New Orleans as a “big success.” In January, Trump credited the troops with reducing the city’s violent crime within a week of their deployment. City police data shows violent crime rates have significantly declined over the past three years in parallel with national trends.

According to a press statement from the Louisiana National Guard, the remaining guard members will serve as a “visible presence to deter criminal activity in New Orleans.”

New Orleans Mayor Helena Moreno, a Democrat who initially opposed the deployment, said that the troops would benefit the city in the coming weeks. She pointed out that National Guard troops had assisted the city during last year’s Mardi Gras in the aftermath of a vehicle-ramming attack in the French Quarter that killed 14 people on New Year’s Day.

“I continue to support the partnership with the LA National Guard to assist in our major events and there are several coming up in the next few weeks,” Moreno said in a statement.

While Moreno did not address which events she referred to, visitors flock to New Orleans in the spring for events like the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, a Republican and staunch Trump ally, requested the deployment of the National Guard last September, citing rising violent crime rates in New Orleans despite the data showing crime was down.

“This continued deployment will help us combat violence in New Orleans and other parts of Louisiana,” Landry wrote on the social platform X on Monday, noting Louisiana had also sent National Guard troops to Washington, D.C., last year.

Kate Kelly, a spokesperson for Landry, said the federal government would cover the cost of the extended deployment. She did not respond to a question about whether Guard members would be deployed outside New Orleans.

Maj. Gen. Thomas Friloux, adjutant general of the Louisiana National Guard, said in a statement the troops had already worked closely with other city, state and federal agencies to improve public safety during a stretch of high-profile events in the city, including the flood of visitors over Mardi Gras and the city’s carnival season.

“We remain committed to those partnerships as we continue supporting efforts to keep the City of New Orleans safe for residents and visitors,” Friloux said.

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Brook is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

Grandfather recovering from surgery after bison attack at Yellowstone sent him flying

By WTOP Staff
(CNN) — What started as a yearly trip for a grandfather and his grandson turned into a visit to a Montana hospital after a bison attack at Yellowstone National Park.Carl McDaniel, 65, was hospitalized with a broken femur after a bison charged and tossed him into the air Friday evening at the park’s Bridge Bay Campground, according to McDaniel and the National Park Service.He was visiting the park with his 13-year-old grandson when they decided to take a walk after dinner.Along the way, they encountered a large bison that appeared to be rolling around in the dust and was not bothering anyone, McDaniel told CNN.“We were about a hundred yards away,” McDaniel said. “He was not aggressive; he was not having problems and we took some pictures and decided to walk on.”McDaniel and his grandson snapped a quick photo and continued with their walk, video of the encounter shows. At the same time, a truck drove by, and the driver laid on his horn in what appeared to be an attempt to get the bison to move, McDaniel said. There is no audio on the video.The bison then appeared to become agitated and began running toward the pair.“There was little time to decide what to do. At that point, he was within 100 yards; he could be to us in seconds, so I told my grandson to run in one direction and I went the other to try and draw him away,” McDaniel said.The animal then pushed McDaniel with the top of its head, sending him flying into the air before he hit the ground, the grandfather said.“When I was on the ground immobile, unable to move, he was right on top of me. He could have stomped on me, he could have gored me, he could have done almost anything to take my life, and he did not do so,” McDaniel said.After McDaniel hit the ground, photographer Mike MacLeod, who captured the encounter on video, had to step in, he told Cowboy State Daily.“I was really afraid he was going to gore the guy on the ground, so I stopped videotaping and ran at the bison, yelled loud, and was trying to be as big and intimidating as possible,” MacLeod said.After the bison took off, people rushed over to McDaniel, who was in a lot of pain, MacLeod told Cowboy State Daily. Yellowstone EMS arrived soon after, he said.“Park emergency medical personnel responded and transported him to a nearby hospital,” the National Park Service said in confirming the incident in a statement to CNN.This is the second bison attack at Yellowstone this year. A 12-year-old was injured near Mud Volcano on June 26, according to the agency.After Friday’s attack, “all the people that were there were amazing; they were all positive, they were trying to help as best they could,” McDaniel said. A nurse started tending to his leg, while another bystander held his head.He was then transferred to a hospital in Bozeman, a two-hour journey during which he was in intense pain. He said he was grateful for the paramedic who helped him along the way.McDaniel broke his femur, the body’s strongest bone, in four places near his hip and suffered several bruises. He had surgery Sunday and could stand by Monday.“I will be doing physical therapy for the next few days to get to walk, but it was not as catastrophic as it could have been,” McDaniel said.The National Park Service advises visitors to stay at least 25 yards away from bison at all times and to never approach the animals. “If the bison follows you, spray bear spray as you are moving away, and seek cover behind nearby trees or cars,” the agency said.Correction: An earlier version of this story understated how far visitors should stay away from bison. The National Park Service advises visitors to stay at least 25 yards from them.The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
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