The first of several bills aimed at changing Louisiana’s marijuana laws received a warm reception from lawmakers Thursday, with a bill to tax the raw smokable form of medical marijuana easily passing through a state House committee.
Louisiana's prison system is asking state lawmakers for a $21.6 million budget bump to help fund a 10% pay raise for entry-level correctional officers in an effort to stem soaring turnover rates among guards.
Two reports Thursday panned how Louisiana supports its roads and bridges and how a substandard transportation system is costing motorists $7.6 billion per year.
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A limited but significant revamp of Louisiana’s corporate tax code on Wednesday passed the first of many steps before it can become law, but broader efforts to reduce or eliminate dozens of corporate tax breaks faced a blizzard of opposition from …
A bill to allow survivors of sexual assault to terminate housing leases early moved forward Wednesday.
Louisiana Republican Julia Letlow was sworn into the House on Wednesday, claiming the seat her late husband was elected to but never filled after dying of COVID-19 in late December, days before taking office.
Because electricity customers – even those who sat in the cold during the February storm – are having to pay about $10 more per month, Louisiana regulators ordered an investigation into the decisions made by utility company officials.
Who qualifies for TOPS scholarships sparked new complaints Wednesday when a key state House committee learned that 59% of recipients live in families with incomes of $70,000 per year and more.
Developers and property owners get another five years of tax incentives should they locate their redevelopment projects in north Baton Rouge following the East Baton Rouge Parish Metro Council's extension of a special taxing district for the community.
A complicated tax swap that would eliminate a popular deduction in exchange for lowering income tax rates passed its first step when it won approval from a Louisiana Senate committee Tuesday. But it still has a long road to travel before it can be…
Of the 144 seats in the Louisiana Legislature, Democrats hold 47, and even fewer of those members espouse “progressive” ideas.
A business-backed effort to centralize Louisiana's sales tax collections began Tuesday working its way through the state House, where Republican leaders are pushing to get rid of the state's unusual system of letting a hodgepodge of local governme…
Public schools in Louisiana are getting more than $4 billion from three rounds of federal stimulus dollars to help combat the coronavirus pandemic, and a state Senate leader said Tuesday he wants to make sure the once-in-a-lifetime windfall is not…
Dr. Ghali E. Ghali, chancellor of the LSU medical school in Shreveport, was put on administrative leave Tuesday, a day after four employees filed federal complaints alleging he suppressed sexual harassment allegations involving students and retali…
An attempt to recall Louisiana House Speaker Clay Schexnayder has failed, passing the deadline without signatures submitted.
Four employees of LSU medical school in Shreveport – two of whom are physicians – filed complaints Monday with the federal government saying LSU leadership failed to act when told that Chancellor Dr. Ghali E. Ghali had tamped down reports of wides…
Minimum wage hike, teacher raises among priorities as John Bel Edwards addresses legislative session
Gov. John Bel Edwards called on lawmakers to address the inequities exposed by the coronavirus pandemic by passing a rash of priorities ranging from a minimum wage hike to pay raises for teachers in a speech Monday capping off the first day of Lou…
Louisiana’s Legislature kicks off its two-month meeting at noon Monday, reconvening to craft a budget, tackle tax changes and divvy up $3.2 billion in federal COVID-19 aid more than a year after the coronavirus pandemic forced lawmakers into reces…
Six years ago, Louisiana became the first state in the Deep South to authorize a medical marijuana program, giving the state a head start over its neighbors in the rapidly growing market.
With two federal probes, lawsuits being filed, legislators looking for heads, the state auditor being asked to poke around, and more sexual conduct allegations going public, it’s clear that LSU is approaching meltdown.
Early voting opens Saturday and ends April 17 for the April 24 municipal general election and a special election for a seat in the U.S. House. Polling places will be closed Sunday.
Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin told lawmakers Thursday that he won't soon restart Louisiana's work to upgrade its voting technology, after two prior efforts to replace thousands of voting machines were scrapped amid controversy.
In what a business lobbyist calls “the holy grail of the session,” House Speaker Clay Schexnayder is pressing a bill he hopes will overcome generations of reluctance by local governmental taxing agencies to turn over their sales tax collection and…
Louisiana launched a COVID-19 vaccine hotline on Thursday that the public can call to schedule a vaccination appointment or talk directly with a medical professional who can answer questions or concerns about the life-saving jab.
Pay raises for teachers, new sexual misconduct rules: John Bel Edwards issues legislative priorities
Gov. John Bel Edwards said pay raises for K-12 teachers, increased funding for higher education and new rules for sexual misconduct on college campuses are among his top priorities going into the legislative session starting April 12.
A state lawmaker said Wednesday that slavery is alive and well in Louisiana's prison system and put forward legislation that would ask voters to abolish forced labor practices for good.
The Baton Rouge law firm that has represented LSU since the 1930s advised a small group of university leaders not to tell most of the Board of Supervisors about former football coach Les Miles’ alleged improper behavior with female students — advi…
One after the other, all 10 LSU staffers, board members and lawyers who were asked to testify Thursday before the Senate Select Committee on Women and Children have declined their invitations, instead sending statements that offer few answers as t…
An attorney for LSU Senior Associate Athletic Director Miriam Segar sent a letter Tuesday to the Senate Select Committee on Women and Children telling members that Segar would not testify at their April 8 hearing.
In a proposal that sparked immediate controversy, a state Senate leader and others have filed a bill that would divide the parks and recreation system for East Baton Rouge Parish and set up new recreation districts in St. George, Zachary and Central.
Louisiana was awarded $42,796,369 from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday to support local efforts to increase vaccine uptake in communities disproportionately impacted by COVID-19.
Transgender athletes would be barred from participating in girls' or women's sports at public schools under a proposal filed last week by a group of GOP state lawmakers, adding Louisiana to a growing list of legislatures considering restrictions o…
Nearly 100,000 people received $405.3 million in unemployment benefits to which they were not entitled and the numbers are probably much larger, the Louisiana Legislative Auditor’s Office reported Monday.
One of the key issues hovering over the 2021 regular legislative session is how state leaders plan to use the latest gusher of federal stimulus aid: $3.2 billion that could offset pandemic losses and also benefit a wide range of services.
Louisiana is gearing up to deploy a new data analytics tool to identify the neighborhoods experiencing the highest levels of hunger but the lowest levels of food stamp enrollments.
Furious with LSU’s sexual misconduct scandal, Louisiana lawmakers are heading into the upcoming legislative session with hopes of fixing some of the glaring problems around universities’ reporting of abuse, with at least three bills already in the…
The chief executives of Georgia’s two largest corporations — Delta Air Lines and Coca-Cola — issued statements Wednesday opposing Georgia’s new voting laws.
Two weeks ago, Karen Carter Peterson said she wanted three debates during the congressional runoff, and Troy Carter responded by saying, “Bring it!”
As more states legalize marijuana for recreational use – New York became the 15th to do so on Wednesday when Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a bill into law – a Louisiana political pollster found that a fast-growing number of people in this state favor d…
The Legislature's Senate Select Committee on Women and Children has called for 10 people involved in LSU's handling of sexual misconduct and domestic violence complaints over the past several years to testify at their next committee hearing, set f…
Republican Attorney General Jeff Landry hasn’t announced whether he’s running for governor in 2023 – he downplays the idea whenever publicly asked.
More than 40% of Republicans in Louisiana said they don't plan on getting vaccinated against COVID-19, revealing a starkly partisan divide when compared to similar apathy among just 13% of Democrats, according to the results of a poll conducted by…
A conservative activist is asking the Louisiana Board of Ethics to investigate whether House Speaker Clay Schexnayder and Senate President Page Cortez are evading disclosure requirements by using a nonprofit group to engage in political activity.
After months of talks behind closed doors trying to come to settlement with the state Attorney General, physicians who successfully challenged a Louisiana anti-abortion law have asked a federal judge to order Louisiana taxpayers to pay the winning…
With a sexual misconduct scandal roiling LSU and a group of female state lawmakers demanding accountability, Gov. John Bel Edwards announced Wednesday that he was appointing two women to positions on the LSU Board of Supervisors and the Board of Regents.
Louisiana's Department of Wildlife and Fisheries will ask lawmakers to raise the cost of recreational hunting and fishing licenses and other user fees to close a budget gap that is only projected to worsen in the future, the agency's leader said W…
The Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services received federal approval to begin a virtual Disaster Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for low-income households who sustained damage or lost income from February's winter storm.
The leaders of the state Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday grilled the secretary for the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development about salaries in his agency.
After months of steady improvements and declining hospitalizations, Louisiana's fight against COVID-19 has stalled in recent weeks, worrying some public health officials that the state could be teetering on the edge of another deadly spike in coro…
As the state Legislature prepares to debate whether to change Louisiana’s unique open primary election system and move to closed party primaries, a public disagreement between some of the state’s top Republican officials has emerged over the question.
After being wooed by both of the remaining candidates, Gary Chambers Jr. endorsed Karen Carter Peterson in the April 24 congressional runoff, the Baton Rouge activist who finished third in the primary announced in a video Monday.