Names and faces

■ Irvin Mayfield, the jazz trumpet player who became a symbol of New Orleans resilience after Hurricane Katrina, was sentenced to 18 months in prison Wednesday for steering charity money meant for public libraries to his personal use. Mayfield’s musical and business partner, pianist Ronald Markham, was also sentenced to 18 months in federal court. Both pleaded guilty last November to a single charge of conspiracy to commit fraud. Prosecutors accused the two men of steering more than $1.3 million from the New Orleans Public Library Foundation to themselves, largely by funneling it through the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra, which Mayfield founded. Mayfield, allowed to speak before he was sentenced, apologized to the library foundation, its donors and the New Orleans community. He acknowledged the library as a place where he first was able to listen to jazz records as a child. That brought one of several interruptions from U.S District Judge Jay Zainey. “The very library that got you your start … you ripped off,” Zainey said. Attorneys for the foundation, while not speaking on what kind of sentence Mayfield and Markham should get, said the damage done went beyond the $1.3 million. The scandal, they said, also seriously damaged the foundation’s reputation and fundraising ability. Mayfield was among musicians who took a high-profile role in promoting New Orleans after levee failures and catastrophic flooding during Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Mayfield’s father died in the floodwaters. “Book One,” an album by Mayfield and the Jazz Orchestra, won a Grammy in 2010. But the library foundation scandal led to his resignation as artistic director of the orchestra in 2016 while scrutiny of his role with the library grew after investigative reports by WWL-TV.

■ German Chancellor Angela Merkel was feted by France on Wednesday in a special farewell ceremony honoring her leadership and partnership. French President Emmanuel Macron was to award Merkel with the Great Cross of the Legion of Honor as part of her “adieu” visit to the historic Burgundy town of Beaune. Macron and his wife, Brigitte, joined Merkel and her husband, Joachim Sauer, for a visit to the Hospices de Beaune, a medieval hospital that is now a monument renowned for its museum and surrounding vineyards, and for a piano recital at the Vougeot Chateau. The event is also seen as a gesture of friendship between France and Germany, whose partnership is at the heart of the European Union. Macron is the fourth French president to hold office since Merkel took power in 2005. Merkel, 67, is leaving office after 16 years. The three parties that hope to form Germany’s new government say they aim to have the country’s next chancellor in place in early December.

Mayfield

Merkel