The Advocate will provide live updates as the Louisiana says its goodbyes to former governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco.
Today in The Rundown: Services for Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, Louisiana's 54th governor, begin today. Blanco, 76, died Sunday after a long cancer battle.
Usually restricted parking around the State Capitol will be made available Thursday afternoon for members of the public wanting to pay their final respects to Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco.
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Louisiana’s largest business lobby did not endorse one of the two major Republican candidates for governor in this year’s election--it is backing both.
People who come to the Capitol Thursday for the public visitation of former Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco will see a video tribute of her on screens in Memorial Hall.
Twenty-third Judicial District Attorney Ricky Babin has reorganized management responsibilities among some of his staff after the recent retirement of longtime investigator and top administrator Billy Clark.
U.S.-Canada-Mexico trade pact expected to be priority for Congress this fall but still faces hurdles
WASHINGTON — Louisiana's critical agriculture, energy and petrochemicals industries would likely get a big boost if Congress finalizes a new U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade deal by the end of the year as some Republicans are hoping, but so far, a deal is…
There was no sign of Brownie, that is, Michael Brown, the ill-fated director of FEMA during Hurricane Katrina.
Despite an ongoing challenge to the contract awards, Louisiana's health department wants to continue negotiating terms with four companies chosen to manage Medicaid patient care, saying delays could put health services at risk.
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has given no indication he intends to get involved in Louisiana's gubernatorial race at this point, but that's could change if the race heads into a November runoff.
Kathleen Babineaux Blanco will lie in repose in the State Capitol on Thursday as part of a three-day commemoration for the former governor who lost her battle with cancer on Sunday.
GONZALES — Ascension Parish Councilman Travis Turner won a third term in office after his opponent withdrew about a week after qualifying had ended.
WASHINGTON — The federal government has reassured Louisiana officials that residents of East Baton Rouge and Livingston parishes are not at risk for reduced National Flood Insurance Program coverage, despite audits that raised red flags over recov…
The two losing bidders for Louisiana’s new round of multi-billion dollar Medicaid contracts have filed protests of the state’s decision, claiming the bid process was tainted and that officials were biased against them.
About 5,000 patients have received medical marijuana in Louisiana, and officials say they have enough of the medicine to meet demand, two weeks after the historic first batch of products was released to patients.
Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, who became the first woman elected governor of Louisiana and then saw her political career derailed by the costliest hurricane to ever hit the United States, died Sunday from complications from ocular melanoma. She was 76.
Humbled is the word Baton Rouge lawyer Kelly Balfour uses to describe how he feels about his recent election, without opposition, to the 19th Judicial District Court.
The latest jobs numbers for Louisiana were announced Friday, and they immediately became a political football in the governor’s race.
WASHINGTON — U.S. House GOP Whip Steve Scalise has mostly stayed out of Louisiana's heated governor's race — both declining to run himself, despite urging from fellow Republicans, and abstaining from endorsing either of the major GOP contenders. B…
GONZALES — Byron Hill, one of two Republican candidates for Ascension Parish sheriff, accused the interim sheriff and his predecessor of politically based law enforcement decisions, a top heavy administration and undermanned operations in which th…
Kansas City Southern railroad is asking for at least $5 million to resolve the latest delay for completion of the Comite River Diversion Canal, state and federal officials said Thursday.
The candidacy of state Rep. C. Denise Marcelle's lone opponent for the Louisiana House of Representatives is under challenge in Baton Rouge district court.
Today in The Rundown: Louisiana's views on hot topics of abortion and climate change; Medicaid contracts draw scrutiny; women run for Legislature in record numbers; and everything else you need to know in Louisiana politics today.
The East Baton Rouge Parish Metro Council's appointment of a new parish attorney wasn’t the close, and hotly contested, vote most council members had predicted.
Sizable majorities of likely voters in Louisiana believe in climate change, say weather is becoming more extreme and that it will affect future generations, according to a new survey.
WASHINGTON — The federal government is set to pay more than $5 million to elevate 88 homes in Livingston Parish that flooded during Louisiana’s historic flooding in 2016, part of millions going toward efforts to mitigate future damage.
Louisiana will enter into a complex agreement that could lead to the widespread privatization of energy systems at state agencies and universities throughout the state, after lawmakers reviewed the deal for a final time Tuesday.
WASHINGTON — Nearly a quarter of Louisiana residents polled by the nonpartisan Public Religion Research Institute say they oppose abortion, even in cases of rape and incest — a rate higher than any other state in the poll.
A Super PAC affiliated with Gov. John Bel Edwards has launched its first major attacks on the governor’s two main Republican challengers, releasing its first TV ads in the race about two months before election day.
GONZALES — Ascension Parish Councilman Aaron Lawler and Recreation Director B.J. Romano engaged in a shouting match after a recent public meeting over the condition of a children's playground area that grew so heated another administration officia…
Incumbents who hope to return to Louisiana's top school board say resolving the job future of state Superintendent of Education John White should be a top priority when the new board convenes in January.
Congressman Ralph Abraham has launched his first TV ad in the race for governor, making him the last of the three major candidates to do so.
Ted L. Jones, a veteran guitar-playing lobbyist in Baton Rouge and Washington, D.C., who could trace his Louisiana political lineage back to Earl K. Long, died early Sunday. He was 85.
GONZALES — Attorneys for a Gonzales insurance company say Ascension Parish President Kenny Matassa may have committed a state ethics violation by being a plaintiff in a suit to recoup nearly $182,000 in legal fees for his defense against a March 2…
Mark Ballard: Will Louisiana's Constitution be rewritten? PAR says it will be 'major' election issue
Apart from eating boudin, avoiding specifics and having supporters describe opponents in the vilest terms, one of the enduring Louisiana campaign traditions is the pilgrimage to PAR, first to understand what in the world those constitutional amend…
The Louisiana Democratic Party continues to decline under a Democratic governor, John Bel Edwards.
Martin "Marty" Triche, the police jury president in Assumption Parish for 27 years, did not seek reelection and was one of a handful of local politicians who chose not to qualify for elections Oct. 12.
John Warner Smith, a former cabinet secretary, was named Friday Louisiana’s newest Poet Laureate by the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities and Gov. John Bel Edwards.
When the dust cleared from three days of candidate-qualifying, 77 women had signed up to run for the Louisiana House and state Senate – more than ever before, according the Secretary of State’s statistics.
WASHINGTON — Members of Louisiana's congressional delegation continue to push for the state to receive a bigger cut of the revenues from oil and gas produced in the Gulf of Mexico.
A new round of multi-billion-dollar contracts for managing Louisiana’s Medicaid program is drawing scrutiny from some lawmakers and a planned appeal by the losing bidder.
An adept, confident and consummate politician, former Gov. Edwin Edwards said he’s pretty sure he never would have run for office if the political environment then was like it is today.
A former West Baton Rouge judge who served a lengthy suspension for judicial improprieties before stepping down entered a crowded race for sheriff just ahead of Thursday's deadline for candidates seeking to run for public office across Louisiana.
Longtime Ascension Parish homeland security director Rick Webre, the brother of interim Sheriff Bobby Webre, has resigned from his office and entered a wide-open field for parish president as the incumbent, embattled Parish President Kenny Matassa…
The candidates who qualified to run in many of the races for the Oct. 12 primary in the Baton Rouge region are listed below. Early voting for the primary is Sept. 28-Oct. 5. A runoff, is necessary, is scheduled Nov. 16. The list of candidates for …
East Baton Rouge Parish Metro Councilwoman Donna Collins-Lewis is is running for the parish's Clerk of Court position, qualifying Thursday for the Oct. 12 race.
The former secretary for Louisiana's juvenile justice department was honored this week by the American Correctional Association for her dedication to the field, both across the nation and in the Bayou State.
Nine candidates signed up to run for governor by the close of qualifying Thursday but none have bigger names than the three candidates who signed up Tuesday.
An acrimonious debate over car insurance rates and so-called tort reform — involving a controversial bill that a powerful business lobby dubbed its No. 1 priority — ended during the legislative session earlier this year without the passage of any …
Republican State Treasurer John Schroder filed for re-election Wednesday on the second of three days of qualifying for statewide offices.
A little more than a year removed from Ascension Parish President Kenny Matassa's acquittal on a bribery charge, two challengers qualified Tuesday to be the top executive of Louisiana's fastest-growing parish.