• Beyoncé and Jay-Z purchased a home that set a record for the priciest home in California in 2023.
• The $190 million Malibu mansion is just one of the many properties they own around the country.
• Here are the homes they're linked to, from a former church in New Orleans to a Hamptons estate.

Beyoncé and Jay-Z break music records — and real-estate records.

The couple, whose combined net worth is nearly $4 billion as of publication, according to Forbes, is linked to numerous partnerships and deals, including Jay-Z's upcoming Super Bowl halftime performance, as well as several multimillion-dollar homes across the United States.

In 2023, they bought a 42,000-square-foot Malibu estate with a minimalist concrete aesthetic, designed by famed Japanese architect Tadao Ando. The price? $190 million — one of the largest sums in California history.

In New Orleans, the "Cowboy Carter" singer and the rapper-turned-entrepreneur have been linked to a former Presbyterian church that has been transformed into a mansion.

Beyoncé and Jay-Z's impressive property portfolio also includes another mansion in the Los Angeles area and several homes in New York. They are also reportedly in talks to purchase a 58-acre plot of land in the Cotswolds that they plan to develop in the future.

Take a look at Beyoncé and Jay-Z's homes across the country.

Beyoncé came from humble beginnings in Houston.

Beyoncé's rise to stardom began in a modest, middle-class neighborhood in Houston's Third Ward.

2414 Rosedale Street has three bedrooms and three bathrooms over 8,640 square feet, according to the listing from 2019.

According to the Associated Press, the Knowles family purchased the home in 1982, not long after Beyoncé was born, and moved out when she was about 5.

In 2019, the home was listed for sale for about $500,000. Because Texas is a non-disclosure state, it's unclear how much it sold for.

Beyoncé was spotted taking photos of the home in September 2023 during the Houston stop of her Renaissance World Tour, the AP reported.

The couple is linked to a Tribeca penthouse, where they married in 2008.

In September 2004, Jay-Z, who voiced his aspirations for success in his hit rap song 'Big Pimpin', made one of his first big real-estate purchases.

The native New Yorker, who was about 34 at the time, spent $6.85 million on a penthouse at 195 Hudson Street in the downtown Manhattan neighborhood of Tribeca.

Architectural Digest reported that the 8,000-square-foot apartment has an additional 3,000 square feet of outdoor terrace space. It's in a 27-unit building that was converted from a 1929 brick warehouse in 1999, real-estate listings site StreetEasy reported.

In 2008, he and Beyoncé held an intimate wedding ceremony at the penthouse, with 40 people in attendance. Architectural Digest reported in 2024 that the couple is believed to still own the home.

The couple rented out a Los Angeles mansion for $150,000 a month

In 2014, the Carters house-hunted on the East Coast, considering several properties. One was an eight-bedroom, 15-bathroom Beverly Hills mansion that they were outbid for by Markus Persson, the billionaire creator of the video game Minecraft. (Persson listed the mansion for sale in October 2026 for $70 million.)

After being outbid on several other properties, the couple decided to rent a home in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Holmby Hills, Architectural Digest reported. The 20,000-square-foot estate was valued at $4 million in 2015, according to Realtor.com. At the time, the couple paid a whopping $150,000 a month in rent. When the property was eventually sold in 2015, they moved on.

Beyoncé and Jay-Z are also linked to a home in New Orleans that used to be a church.

Louisiana is where Beyoncé's mother, fashion designer Tina Knowles, was born and raised.

In 2015, multiple news outlets reported that the couple purchased a Spanish Baroque-style mansion in New Orleans' Garden District. The house on Harmony Street, locally known as La Casa de Castille, was listed for $2.6 million at the time of its purchase, but the exact sales purchase price remains a mystery due to Louisiana's non-disclosure policy.

NOLA.com outlined how the church became a residence: In the 1920s, Westminster Presbyterian Church built it, and 38 members of the Ku Klux Klan allegedly attended its groundbreaking ceremony. Following years of vacancy, dancer Harvey Hysell transformed it into a ballet theater in 1977. Finally, in the early 2000s, it was purchased and extensively renovated.

According to the old Zillow listing, it still has 16-foot ceilings and stained-glass windows. The 13,300-square-foot, three-story property, made up of a main residence and three separate apartments, has a total of seven bedrooms, eight bathrooms, and a rooftop garden.

In 2021, there was a fire on the property, and it was listed for sale shortly after at $3.5 million, later increased to $4.45 million, TMZ reported. However, it was later taken off the market, according to Architectural Digest.

On Google Maps' Street View, La Casa de Castille is blurred, suggesting that it may still be a private residence.

Beyoncé and Jay-Z own a home in the Hamptons.

Beyoncé and Jay-Z have a New York state of mind when it comes to real estate.

In addition to the Tribeca penthouse and a midtown Manhattan condo — which Beyoncé owned prior to their marriage and sold in 2017 for $10 million — they have rented and owned several homes in the Hamptons.

In 2012, the year their daughter Blue Ivy was born, they leased a 31,000-square-foot vacation home in Bridgehampton for $400,000 a month.

Beyond the standard luxuries like a bar, a pool, and a tennis court, that mansion also featured a bowling alley, rock climbing wall, and skateboard half-pipe, according to Architectural Digest.

In 2017, the couple purchased the Pond House in East Hampton for $26 million.

Located at 81 Briar Patch Road, the 12,000-square-foot mansion with seven bedrooms, seven bathrooms, and a separate cottage was designed by architect Stanford White, whose work includes the arch in Washington Square Park.

The couple's waterfront property sits across from Georgica Pond and a 17-acre meadow preserve, offering unparalleled privacy.

Beyoncé and Jay-Z purchased a 34,000-square-foot estate in Bel Air in 2017.

Also in 2017, Beyoncé and Jay-Z bought an $88 million mansion in Bel Air. They welcomed twins Rumi and Sir that year, too.

The ultramodern 34,000-square-foot estate has eight bedrooms, 20 bathrooms, and a 90-foot infinity pool, according to its Zillow listing.

It has more than 10,000 square feet of outdoor living space and offers panoramic views of the Angeles National Forest.

In 2023, Beyoncé and Jay-Z bought the most expensive home in California history.

In 2023, Beyoncé and Jay-Z purchased a 40,000-square-foot mansion in Malibu's exclusive Paradise Cove neighborhood, which some have dubbed "Billionaires' Beach," for $190 million.

The sale set a record at the time for the most expensive property transaction in California. It was also the largest residential sale nationwide that year.

The estate's record-breaking price tag is attributed in part to its high-pedigree design and extensive array of amenities.

According to Architectural Digest, it took the previous owners, art collectors Bill Bell and his wife Maria Bell, a decade and a half to complete the building.

Spanning more than 8 acres, the compound is designed in the Japanese minimalist style for which its architect, Tadao Ando, is known.

According to E! News, the main residence has 8 bedrooms and 11 bathrooms, while its living room features custom-made fixtures imported from Italy. Outside, there are four separate pools, a bar, and a private helipad.

The couple is reportedly in talks to purchase a 58-acre plot of land in the Cotswolds in England.

The Cotswolds, a picturesque region spanning parts of southwestern and south-central England, is known for its rolling green hills, centuries-old villages, and historic estates.

With luxury properties often commanding multimillion-pound prices, the area has earned the nickname "the Hamptons of England." It has long attracted prominent British residents, including David and Victoria Beckham, actress Elizabeth Hurley, and supermodel Kate Moss.

More recently, the Cotswolds have also attracted wealthy Americans. Beyoncé and Jay-Z are reportedly among them, The Times reported in September.

According to the publication, the Carters are considering a £7.5 million ($8.54 million) 58-acre property in Wigginton, a village with fewer than 200 residents. Owain Jones, who is handling the sale, told The Times that their plans to develop the land could bring the project's total cost to about £18 million (or about $20. 5 million).

Should the Carters move forward with the purchase, they would not be far from the Beckhams and Simon Cowell, who reportedly own homes in the nearby village of Great Tew.

However, the proposed construction has upset some Wigginton residents, who are concerned about preserving the village's peace and quiet, House & Garden reported.

Au congrès du RN à Orléans, Jordan Bardella a promis le vouvoiement obligatoire des professeurs et une tenue unique dans toutes les écoles. L’autorité viendrait d’une décision centrale, serait payée par le contribuable et échapperait aux familles comme aux chefs d’établissement.

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Généralisé aux 12 millions d’écoliers, l’addition approcherait 2,4 milliards d’euros. L’État a pourtant déjà retiré son financement de l’expérimentation, laissant les communes seules face à la dépense.

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Du vouvoiement à l’uniforme, le RN mise sur une reprise en main nationale.

« Nous restaurerons l’autorité, le vouvoiement des professeurs sera obligatoire, une tenue unique sera instaurée » . La phrase a été prononcée dimanche 25 octobre par le jeune président du RN, Jordan Bardella, devant des militants qui venaient de le réélire à la tête du parti. Il avait recueilli près de 99 % des suffrages, seul candidat en lice. Dans le même discours, il a annoncé l’abaissement de la majorité pénale à 16 ans.

Répondre aux inquiétudes sur la discipline par des règles uniformes, décidées au sommet de l’État. Le vouvoiement deviendrait une obligation générale, tandis que la tenue unique s’imposerait aux établissements concernés par la réforme. Pourtant, ces deux mesures ne relèvent pas du même registre. Le respect dû aux enseignants touche aux comportements et à l’éducation ; l’uniforme suppose, lui, une organisation matérielle, des achats, une distribution et un financement.

Les familles transmettent des règles de politesse, les enseignants exercent leur autorité dans la classe et les chefs d’établissement organisent la vie scolaire. Transformer ces pratiques en prescriptions nationales revient à déplacer le centre de décision vers l’administration. Une règle commune peut sembler simple à annoncer ; elle l’est beaucoup moins à appliquer dans des établissements aux réalités sociales et matérielles différentes.

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L’uniforme pourrait coûter des milliards, sans budget national annoncé.

Reste la facture. L’expérimentation lancée en 2024 évaluait le trousseau complet à environ 200 euros, cofinancé à 50 % par l’État. Étendu aux quelque douze millions d’élèves, cela donne 2,4 milliards d’euros. Le calcul est indicatif, mais il fixe l’ordre de grandeur. À titre de comparaison, l’État n’avait versé que 1,6 million d’euros pour une centaine d’établissements. La généralisation multiplierait donc l’effort par plus de mille cinq cents. L’expérience a aussi montré ses limites. À Denain, dans le Nord, le dispositif a coûté 160 000 euros, partagés entre l’État et la commune. La ville n’a pas voulu le reconduire, faute de pouvoir en assumer seule la charge. Une commune qui renonce devant l’addition donne une idée de ce que supporteraient les finances publiques à l’échelle nationale.

Or Jordan Bardella n’a annoncé, dans les éléments cités, ni enveloppe budgétaire, ni calendrier détaillé de généralisation, ni mécanisme de contrôle des dépenses. Il serait prématuré de présenter les 2,4 milliards comme une dépense certaine, mais tout aussi imprudent de traiter l’uniforme comme une mesure sans coût. On notera aussi que l’évaluation de l’expérimentation est plus nuancée que le slogan. Si 75 % des directeurs du primaire y voient un progrès pour le sentiment d’appartenance, les enseignants étaient majoritairement défavorables, à 54 %. Les professeurs, dont le RN veut précisément restaurer l’autorité, ne sont donc pas les plus convaincus.

Le RN cherche à faire de l’autorité scolaire un marqueur politique fort, à l’approche de la présidentielle de 2027. Mais la promesse du Zénith n’est pas une politique éducative. C’est une séquence de communication, adressée à un électorat qui a porté le RN à 24 mairies au premier tour des municipales de mars 2026. Elle coûte cher, elle décide à la place des intéressés, et elle repose sur un financement que l’État a déjà fui.

The king of ghosts lives in a haunted $4.3 million dollar mansion in the heart of New Orleans' French quarter. The dozens of paranormal tour guides who lead tourists through the neighborhood are sure to know of him and have an opinion of him. Lance Zaal is the most controversial man in America's booming ghost business, CEO of what competitors have dubbed "The Walmart of Ghost Tours."

Over the past half-decade, Zaal, 42, and his company, US Ghost Adventures, have opened ghost tours in more than 250 cities and towns, employing more than 1,000 guides, according to his company's website. He's also been buying up the country's haunted landmarks like it's the first trip around the Monopoly board — the Lizzie Borden House in Massachusetts, the Villisca Axe Murder House in Iowa, the McInteer Villa in Kansas, and two historic houses in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. "Lance has said he wants to build an empire, and that's what he's doing," says Diane Student, who hosts the industry podcast History Goes Bump.

USGA also sells ghost detection gear through the brand Ghost Daddy — products with names like the Sinister Speaker, Medusa's Net, and Devil's Marble MK2. An Ultimate Ghost Hunt Kit For Two sells for $629.99. The whole operation has made Zaal wealthy enough to buy the Lalaurie Mansion, his primary residence, which stands on the site of an infamous slaveowner's torture chamber. Previous guests have reported unexplained moaning and groaning inside, along with the sudden, putrid smell of burning flesh, and, according to New Orleans tour guide Catie Santos, passing guides stand on the opposite side of the street because of the house's dark energy. On tours, Santos, who was briefly employed by Zaal as a content creator, also warns her guests "about the real life Marvel supervillain living in that house," she says.

In assembling his dominion of the undead, Zaal has made a host of enemies among the living. I spoke with more than a dozen competitors and insiders in the industry who described him as "vindictive," "predatory," a "bully," and a "hemorrhoid." He has been accused of borrowing content from local tours, ripping off merchandise designs, redirecting negative reviews to competitors, misclassifying workers as contractors, and using names similar to local companies to confuse tourists. The allegations have resulted in a mounting pile of lawsuits against USGA. Zaal, who did not respond to repeated inquiries for this story, has consistently denied any predatory behavior and emphasizes his commitment to historic preservation.

When passing Zaal's mansion, Catie Santos warns tourists of "the real life Marvel supervillain living in that house," she says.

He has gone after his rivals, filing copyright and defamation suits and frequently threatening legal action. "This gang of competitors are the bullies. So desperate to restore their monopolies or do whatever they can to eliminate their competition," USGA wrote in the comments section of "Exposing US Ghost Adventures Corrupt and Unethical Business Practices Part 1," a recent video from the YouTube channel The Paranormal Engineer.

When Walmart surged through the country in the 1980s, it sparked fierce resistance from the mom and pop stores threatened by their expansion. Today, the rise of the Walmart of Ghost Tours has ignited a war in the ghost industry.

In the biography published on his website — which has a slapdash, early-2000s blog design — Zaal describes a hardscrabble childhood in Southern California. After his parents divorced when he was 6, he was often homeless, sometimes sleeping in the family van. He was bullied in school, he writes, and threw himself into little entrepreneurship projects like a lemonade stand, where he bumped his margins by charging extra for a "Lemon Special," which involved adding a Lemonhead candy to the drink. He says his youth was also marked by eerie experiences — mysterious footsteps, doors opening and closing without explanation — that inspired a lifelong fascination with the supernatural. "I've experienced odd things I can't explain," he said in a recent interview with Business Insider.

After 9/11, Zaal enlisted in the Marine Corps at age 17. He completed three tours, including two in Iraq, where he was stationed for a time at President Saddam Hussein's palace. Then he got an MBA at William and Mary, and worked briefly at Booz Allen Hamilton and Mythics Inc., until he was laid off in 2012. He set out on his own, developing a GPS-guided audio ghost tour app called ItourMobile. It was good timing. America was in the midst of a ghost renaissance.

In a 1978 Gallup poll, 11% of Americans said they believed in ghosts. By 2025, that number soared to 39%. Some attribute the trend to a decline in traditional religion, with non-religious people becoming more inclined to seek other supernatural answers to life's big questions. And as paranormal beliefs have risen, there has been an influx of people trying to profit from them. Reality TV shows "Ghost Hunters" and "Ghost Adventures" took off in the 2000s. By 2023, "dark tourism" — which ranges from the sites of atrocities to haunted houses — was valued at $32 billion and projected to reach $39 billion by the decade's end, according to Grand View Research.

Years after US Ghost Adventures took off, an interviewer at Authority Magazine asked Zaal what advice he wished he could give his younger self. "You're on your own," Zaal said, in a quote displayed under a photo of him in a vest, arms crossed, blue-steeling the camera. "You have no friends. The market is God."

Ting Rappa, an EMT and firefighter who runs an Orlando-based ghost tour called American Ghost Adventures met Zaal in 2015, when he was managing a tour called Colonial Ghosts in Williamsburg, Virginia. Zaal approached Rappa after she attended one of his tours with a proposal to team up. "He was a little off," Rappa says. Something about his energy made her apprehensive. "But he was a very intelligent person. I could tell he had a drive." Zaal said he would help finance her company in exchange for a share of the operation. But the deal didn't seem like an even partnership, so she turned him down.

You're on your own. You have no friends. The market is God.Lance Zaal

Three years later, she discovered that Zaal had a new name for his company that resembled hers: US Ghost Adventures. When she tried to trademark American Ghost Adventures years later, the application was denied because Zaal had registered his first. In 2024, she filed a suit asking for the USGA trademark to be cancelled, still working its way through the courts. "There's just no ethics to it," she says of Zaal's expansion. "Competition is good, but play nice. Right now, you're just being a big bully."

In the Authority Magazine story, Zaal was asked how he researches whether someone else has already had one of his ideas, a question that would become more significant as his business continued to grow.

"It's not relevant," Zaal said. "Who cares who else thought of an idea? This is fear at first thinking. What matters is creating a sustainable, strong business. Just because there are others in your market, doesn't mean you can't succeed in it, or even redefine it. What is important is ensuring you don't break the law, whether that be a trademark, patent, or whatever."

A ghost tour is a pretty simple business to set up. Most are walking tours through public spaces that require little overhead. At USGA, guides are generally contractors paid a flat rate of $40 to $50 per tour, plus tips, per its website. With a tour drawing dozens of customers paying $20 to $40 for a ticket, the money can quickly pile up.

USGA wasn't the only company to pursue ghost tours on a national scale — the rival Ghost City Tours operates 60 tours — but it was the most aggressive. During the pandemic in 2020, as other tour companies were shuttering, Zaal expanded to dozens of cities and towns, ready to put guides on the pavement once restrictions were lifted. That year, he unsuccessfully sued to reverse a COVID ban on walking tours in Massachusetts. By 2021, USGA had operations in 33 cities, each under a local name.

One of the first cities targeted was Baltimore, where Melissa Rowell had operated Baltimore Ghost Tours since 2001. Zaal came on her radar when she began receiving phone calls from irate customers. "We are trying to find out where this ghost tour is," one man complained in a voicemail shared with Business Insider. "Nobody's answering the goddamn phone … after we spent almost $100."

The man was looking for Zaal's new local affiliate of USGA, which had begun operating under the name Baltimore Ghosts. Rowell sent Zaal a letter asking him to change the name to something more distinct. Soon after, Rowell says, USGA started using the name Baltimore Ghost Tour in some materials. "Instead of trying to cause less confusion, they seemed to be trying to cause more," she says.

Rowell and Zaal have since been in a cold war, volleying terse emails and cease-and-desist letters. "I understand you actively collaborate with a confederation of other companies to disparage and damage both the company and my personal reputation," Zaal wrote Rowell in 2024. "Let us honor the spirit of Halloween this season and cease this animosity. There's enough customers for all of us."

Rowell denies that she is part of a confederation, but local tour guides have collaborated in dealing with their ascendant rival. There's a private Facebook group where guides across the country share information about USGA. Mike Carter, a tour guide from Annapolis, Maryland, bought the domain name USAghostadventures.com to build a site that urged customers to choose local ghost tours instead of Zaal's outfit. (Zaal got the site taken down and sued Carter for defamation.) Some paranormal companies, like Central New York Ghost Hunters, have rejected partnerships with USGA out of solidarity with local guides.

In Austin, Texas, USGA was sued by the owners of a local Booze and Boos Tour after Zaal opened a Boos And Booze tour. In Savannah, Georgia, the national company Ghost City Tours, which operated a Dead of Night Tour, sued USGA for opening the Savannah Terrors Ultimate Dead of Night Haunted Ghost Tour. In Charlotte, North Carolina, the local Queen City Tours sued Zaal's Queen City Ghosts. USGA generally argues in court papers and public statements that the names are too generic to own. The Austin suit was settled in 2024; the latter two lawsuits are currently making their way through the courts.

USGA was sued by the owners of the Booze and Boos Tour after it opened a Boos And Booze tour; the Dead of Night Tour for opening the Savannah Terrors Ultimate Dead of Night Haunted Ghost Tour; and Queen City Tours for opening Queen City Ghosts.

In one instance, a guide alleges that Zaal uses these similar names to trick tourists into leaving negative reviews on his competitors' tours. Angela Taverniti, who runs Colonial Ghosts of Williamsburg, said a USGA customer, Samantha Butler, accidentally left a negative review on Taverniti's tour. When she pointed out the mixup, Butler pulled up the link she got from USGA asking her to review the tour and tested it. A screen recording Butler shared with Business Insider shows that when she submitted a four-star ranking, she was directed to the Google review page of the USGA tour she took. But when she submitted a two-star rating, she was directed to the Google page for Taverniti's tour. Spooky. Reviews are a big deal for tour operators. "98 percent of our business comes from Google," Taverniti tells me. "It's a game that you have to play constantly. And he knows how to play it."

Other paranormal guides say Zaal borrows the content of the tours along with the names. Laine Johnson, a former park ranger, spent the last decade developing a tour of the supernatural happenings in Durango, Colorado, drawing from firsthand accounts of locals, newspaper archives, and out-of-print books. When a new tour called Durango Ghosts set up shop there in early 2023, Johnson took it to check out the competition. She says she was startled that they followed her exact route and told the same stories, sometimes with the same phrasing.

When she got home and did some research, she formulated a theory of what had happened. During the pandemic, she had uploaded her materials to a site called Junket, which allowed her to host virtual tours. Junket and Durango Ghosts were owned by Lance Zaal. Her content, she's convinced, had been snatched from the Junket website and co-opted by her new competitor.

USGA has meaningfully eaten into her bottom line, she says. "This is a really small town. It's ridiculous that there's now three ghost tours going here," she says.

By 2021, USGA purchased the crown jewel in its collection of haunted property, a three-story Greek Revival House in Fall River, Massachusetts, where Lizzie Borden was accused of axe-murdering her parents in 1892. It's famous for paranormal activity, and Zaal mentioned in an interview shortly after the purchase that he felt as if "someone, or something, was in the room with him," when he spent the night there alone.

This is a really small town. It's ridiculous that there's now three ghost tours going here.Laine Johnson, a ghost tour owner in Durango, Colorado

In 2023, a small cafe called Miss Lizzie's opened nearby, and Zaal sued, arguing that the name and logo — a blood-stained hatchet — infringed on his trademark. "She's a historical figure," cafe owner Joe Pereira counters. "I don't think anyone can own her." It was a strange reversal of the trademark suits that had been filed against him, and local competitors followed the case closely.

The next year, a judge sided with Pereira, saying the logos were substantially different. "Miss Lizzie's hatchet has a handle and smooth axe blade that spews blood," the judge wrote in his decision. "Ghost Adventures' hatchet is bereft of either handle or blood and features a notch halfway along the blade." But the lawsuit, which dragged on for years afterwards, has taken a financial toll on Pereira. Though a judge affirmed the initial ruling this month, Pereira was also ordered to pay $31,207 in legal fees after missing various filing deadlines.

Amid the acrimony, USGA has continued to grow. From 2019 to 2023, Zaal told Entrepreneur Magazine, USGA's revenue increased by 2,600%. To service the expansion, he contracted with writers and creators to develop tours and other content about new cities in the USGA empire.

Some guides, like Sabrina Velandry, a psychic medium who conducts tours for USGA in Salem, have had broadly positive experiences with the company. It's more professionalized than some of the local tours, she says. "It is corporate, but it's just really really well-run and organized." Others have butted heads with management, and two lawsuits have alleged misclassifying workers as independent contractors and failure to pay overtime wages. USGA has denied these claims, and one suit was settled while another is still in the courts.

In 2023, Ronald Murphy, a high school teacher outside of Pittsburgh, began picking up some extra work for USGA as an independent contractor, where he would crank out a new tour for $200, or make $40 for a 300 word blurb on the USGA website. All told, he says, he wrote tours for about 18 cities.

He says he wasn't given time for deep research and didn't like the idea of using content posted by competing local tours, so for a tour about Fort Worth, Texas, he decided to get creative. "I was going to simply make up the ghosts," he says. He thought the local Cowboy Museum was the sort of place that a ghost might frequent and wrote this fiction for the website: "Of course, no cowboy can hold a candle to The Duke himself, Mr. John Wayne. Visit the Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame where it's said the apparition of the 6 foot 4 actor has been seen admiring the cowboy memorabilia on display." The work eventually dried up. Today, USGA is recruiting an AI Creative Specialist, at $42,000 a year, "to draft, edit, and refine engaging tour scripts, website copy, and compelling marketing collateral." Even ghost jobs aren't safe from the AI revolution.

Trevor Foster didn't have much interest in ghost tours until he was ripped off, he tells me. He's a ceramics artist who specializes in dark pieces like bones, pistols, and mystical eyes. This January, he received a message informing him that USGA may have stolen one of his designs to sell on its Ghost Daddy website — an intricate skull-shaped mug with a handle like a curved bone. From initial casting to final glazing, it took Foster about about 100 hours to complete.

The skull on Ghost Daddy looked like one Foster designed in a slightly different color. Foster says the fact that it had the same sutures on the top — "almost like a fingerprint" — made it clear it was a ripoff. He also found that Zaal had recently purchased the same skull mug from him. "For someone to buy it and make a direct mold just seems kinda brazen," Foster says.

Foster sent a cease-and-desist letter, and Zaal responded that he planned to remove the item within six months. "My understanding in looking at your website is that you have your initials on the bottom (ours doesn't), each one is hand crafted and unique (ours are consistent and the same which is why yours looks better), ours is of a lighter color, and our logo is on the back," Zaal added. To Foster, it seemed Zaal was implying that replacing his initials with the USGA logo was enough to make the knockoff legal.

An Instagram video Foster posted went viral in the ghost tour community, and Zaal agreed in an email shared with Business Insider to discontinue the item immediately. He attributed the similar design to a mistake made by an overseas supplier who was given multiple examples to draw inspiration from. That wasn't good enough for Foster, who sued and settled with Zaal in September.

Foster was surprised to have found something of a community as a result of the whole debacle. After he'd posted about the situation, he was inundated with dozens of messages from people with their own grievances with US Ghost Adventures, commiserating with him. "It's just kind of incredible how many people they've angered," Foster says.

And — if you fall into the 39% of the country that believes in ghosts — you might believe that it isn't just corporeal beings that have been angered. This summer, a group of part-time ghost hunters visited Zaal's newly purchased McInteer Villa and set up K-2 meters, REM pods, and a ghost box.

But the group's leaders Dawn Lorenzen and Amy Osborn found the ghosts to be surprisingly uncommunicative. When they'd visited before Zaal's purchase, the ghost hunting had been good.

They Facetimed a medium to figure out what was going on. The ghosts were irritated, she told them, and it seemed to be related to the new ownership. "They made a circus of the place," the ghosts kept repeating, she said. "And now we are a spectacle."

France mobilizes 70,000 police and gendarmes amid fears of renewed unrest, while authorities restrict demonstrations and tighten security.

France has deployed 70,000 police officers and gendarmes ahead of nationwide demonstrations on Saturday, with authorities warning of a heightened risk of unrest after vandalism and looting damaged about 3,000 businesses the previous week.

RELATED: France Reports 855 Arrests in Paris After Protests

Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu warned late Friday that the threat remained high, particularly from radical far-left groups and criminal elements operating alongside demonstrations called by trade unions, students and the Yellow Vest movement.

Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez announced a large-scale security operation to prevent further violence and looting.

“We will show no mercy to looters and troublemakers,” Nuñez declared. He has faced criticism from the left over police tactics and from the right for failing to prevent the previous week’s unrest.

Authorities have banned gatherings in numerous cities and restricted the routes of other demonstrations on security grounds, prompting criticism from trade unions and human rights organizations.

In major cities, trade union demonstrations were authorized on Saturday only in Paris, Marseille, Strasbourg, Lille, Mulhouse, Grenoble, Toulouse and Amiens.

In Paris, a last-minute change to the union march’s route sparked a dispute between police officials and organizers. Authorities cited the heightened threat following a racist attack on the outskirts of the capital the previous day as they redirected the march from Place de la Nation to Place d’Italie, keeping it away from the city center.

Several museums in the capital, including the Louvre and the Musée d’Orsay, will remain closed, as will the nearby Palace of Versailles. A nighttime curfew in the areas around Place de la République and Les Halles will also remain in force until Monday.

Banks and businesses in central Paris were boarding up shopfronts and windows late Friday and early Saturday in anticipation of possible vandalism, according to observations by Spanish news agency EFE.

Security concerns also extend to Orléans, about 130 kilometers (81 miles) south of Paris, where the far-right National Rally (RN) is holding a congress to formally launch Marine Le Pen’s presidential candidacy, roughly six months before the election.

Authorities estimated that 11,000 people took part in a counter-demonstration in Orléans on Saturday against Le Pen’s party. Organized in opposition to racism, fascism and imperialism, the march proceeded peacefully in a festive atmosphere, according to EFE.

Protesters chanted slogans including “Macron resign, Le Pen to prison” and sang the French national anthem, La Marseillaise, as well as the Spanish-language protest song “The People United Will Never Be Defeated.”

Authorities deployed about 3,000 officers in Orléans to prevent clashes between demonstrators and attendees at the RN congress. The local prefecture authorized Saturday’s march but banned a separate demonstration planned for Sunday.

The security measures reflect the authorities’ efforts to prevent further disorder while allowing some demonstrations to proceed. Restrictions on public gatherings and the deployment of thousands of officers have shaped preparations for Saturday’s rallies across France.

What does it mean to live in a disappearing place? For Pioneer Works’ Broadcast, Brad Bolman, a professor of history and environmental studies at Tulane University, writes about New Orleans, the shifting borders between land and sea, and the political and economic forces that continue to shape the city’s fate in a time of climate catastrophe.

If Los Angeles is the city that has been imaginatively destroyed again and again in film and TV, as Thom Andersen argues in Los Angeles Plays Itself, New Orleans is the one that has been destroyed countless times in reality. We have survived worse and rebuilt before, many insisted. We’re staying.

It was a reaction as understandable emotionally as it was disconnected from environmental reality. But that gap is a feature of life in the Crescent City. As I watched my first Mardi Gras parade this spring, junk falling in never-ending torrents from brightly decorated floats, a friend sympathetically interjected, “This must be driving you crazy.” What they meant was that as someone who teaches about environmental history but isn’t from here, I must be especially affected by the throwaway culture of the city’s most famous fête and its tons and tons of plastic beads, made from the same fossil fuels that are causing sea levels to rise around us.