Tag Archives: Louisiana

The New Orleans Times-Picayune reports: Lawmakers on a Louisiana House committee voted Thursday to repeal a law requiring employers to give child workers lunch breaks and to slash unemployment benefits — part of a Republican-backed push to roll back regulations on companies and reduce aid for injured and unemployed workers. The House Committee on Labor and Industrial Relations advanced the …

Courthouse News reports: A federal court in Louisiana rules that four prison guards may face sanctions and punitive damages because they “lost” video scans that supposedly justified fruitlessly searching an inmate suspected of inserting contraband in his rectum for four days. The scans they produced were not of the inmate, which the court could tell because there are major differences …

The Louisiana Illuminator reports: The Louisiana House Committee on Education advanced House Bill 121 by Rep. Raymond Crews, R-Bossier City, which prohibits the use of transgender and nonbinary youth’s chosen names and pronouns in public K-12 schools without parental permission, along a party line 9-3 vote. House Bill 122 by Rep. Dodie Horton, R-Haugton, which limits discussion of gender and …

NBC News reports: A Louisiana lawmaker is proposing a bill that would allow for nitrogen gas to be used in executions in the event lethal injection is unavailable, making it the latest state to consider adopting the practice after Alabama put a man to death last month through the first-of-its-kind method. Rep. Nicholas Muscarello, a Republican who chairs the House’s …

The Associated Press reports: Springfield Preparatory School, bills itself as an umbrella school for Christian homeschoolers. Most students there do attend the school to work toward an education through actual classes or tutoring. However, principal Kitty Sibley Morrison is also willing to grant a diploma to anyone whose parents say they were homeschooled, even years earlier. Morrison says she is …

Courthouse News reports: The Louisiana State Bar strayed from its core role by giving its members wellness advice and promoting Pride Month, a Fifth Circuit panel ruled Monday, exempting an attorney who took issue with these activities from having to join the organization or pay it dues. Randy Boudreaux, who is openly gay, took issue with an LGBTQ Pride Month …

The Associated Press reports: The Louisiana Legislature has until Jan. 15 to enact a new congressional map after a lower court last year ruled that the current political boundaries dilute the power of the state’s Black voters, a federal New Orleans appeals court said Friday. However, whether current Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards will call a special session to redraw …

The New Orleans Times-Picayune reports: Jeff Landry, the next governor of Louisiana, is a combative Cajun from St. Martin Parish who spent the past eight years as the Republican attorney general. Landry, 52, is a GOP partisan who was endorsed by former President Donald Trump and who won headlines over the last eight years by repeatedly suing President Joe Biden, …

The New York Times reports: Saltwater is swiftly pushing its way up the Mississippi River and is expected to contaminate most of the New Orleans public drinking water supply on Oct. 28. President Biden declared a state of emergency on Wednesday, releasing federal funds to Louisiana. Officials are concerned about saltwater corroding lead pipes, which could leach heavy metals into …

The Shreveport Times reports: Louisiana’s Republican Party has endorsed John Raymond, who is charged with four counts of criminal cruelty to juveniles, in his bid to win a state House seat in St. Tammany Parish. Raymond, lead minister of New Horizon Church in Slidell and founder of Lakeside Christian Academy, was arrested twice in 2022 on juvenile cruelty charges related …

“It just starts with pot. That’s why I’m not a fan of recreational use of pot. I think everywhere we go, we see these communities that are just being destroyed by the smell and it is bad. The people are sleeping on the streets. One thing leads to the other. It is not a great environment. If you go to …

CNN reports: All Louisiana public schools are now required to display the national motto of “In God We Trust” inside of classrooms, under a new law that went into effect on August 1. The bill’s author, state Rep. Dodie Horton, said to CNN affiliate WVUE, “It doesn’t preach any particular religion at all, but it certainly does recognize a higher …

The Guardian reports: The former chaplain of a Roman Catholic high school in Louisiana has pleaded guilty to molesting two minors whom he met through his work and was ordered to spend five years in prison. Patrick Wattigny’s plea and sentence on Wednesday came after both of his victims strongly advocated for a harsher punishment. One victim, who was present, …

Bloomberg News reports: A federal judge in Louisiana denied a request by the US government to delay an order he imposed last week banning federal agencies and officials from communicating with social media companies. The Justice Department is expected to ask the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals to intervene after US District Court Judge Terry Doughty on Monday refused …

The New Orleans Times-Picayune reports: Stephen Sauer, the former Roman Catholic priest and ousted executive director of the Arc of Greater New Orleans, was sentenced Friday to 25 years in prison for drugging 17 men he met in the French Quarter, driving them to his Metairie home and taking pictures of them unconscious and partially undressed while he masturbated. Judge …

New Orleans’ CBS affiliate reports: Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards vetoed three anti-LGBTQ+ bills passed by the Louisiana legislature, his office announced in a press release Friday. House Bill 466, which would have restricted the discussion of gender and sexuality in public school classrooms House Bill 81, which would have required school employees to use the names and pronouns of …

NBC News reports: The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed Louisiana’s appeal seeking to prevent the state’s congressional map from being redrawn over claims that it unlawfully dilutes the influence of Black voters. The move via a brief unsigned order was expected after the Supreme Court’s ruling on June 8 that buttressed a key part of the landmark Voting Rights Act …

CNN reports: Millions of people in Louisiana and Oregon have had their data compromised in the sprawling cyberattack that has also hit the US federal government, state agencies said late Thursday. The breach has affected 3.5 million Oregonians with driver’s licenses or state ID cards, and anyone with that documentation in Louisiana, authorities said. Casey Tingle, a senior official in …

Baton Rouge’s CBS affiliate reports: A prominent Louisiana Baptist leader in the central Louisiana area has been arrested, law enforcement said. Daryl Stagg, 60, of Pollock, was arrested on Thursday and is being held at the Grant Parish Detention Center in Colfax. The Louisiana Baptist Convention confirmed that Stagg has been the associational mission strategist for the Big Creek and …

New Orleans’ CBS affiliate reports: Gov. John Bel Edwards condemned recent legislation targeting the LGBTQ+ community in Louisiana, saying he would veto those bills. At a press conference on Thursday, Gov. Edwards compared the recent measures to historical opposition to the Civil Rights Movement. “On those issues, the judgement of history … will be very clear. It will be as …