In a season touched by political division, the death of former Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco has been an occasion to briefly put such differences aside and honor a woman who served the state during some of darkest days in its history.
Children have returned to school, signaling the unofficial close of summer in Louisiana. But along with the muggy heat, another fixture of the season remains: the threat of West Nile virus, an illness transmitted by mosquitoes.
Cajun power was much in our thoughts last weekend.
As co-founder and executive director of Louisiana Warriors Unleashed, I get to work on improving the lives of our nation’s heroes. Louisiana Warriors Unleashed provides service dogs, therapy dogs, and support animals to veterans and first responde…
Before Moon Landrieu was mayor of New Orleans, he served on the local committee developing what was to become the Louisiana Superdome.
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The recent article on public school performance by Will Sentell is to the point. After decades of being at the bottom of educational achievement, Louisiana is still in the nation’s basement. But Sentell’s article is wrong on one significant detail.
Many people don’t know that the First Amendment protects not only the right to speak but also the right not to speak — and the right not to be forced to pay for some else’s speech. Unfortunately, myself and other practicing lawyers in the state of…
Being a television news anchor is an unusual job. Those who do it well inspire trust and comfort, enough to be invited into strangers’ homes day after day. Those who really shine manage to build close bonds not just with the people they cover but …
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Context is always important. Perhaps inadvertently left out, although it was provided to the reporter, context is sorely missing from the Aug. 13 article, “Few La. Residents get flood grant money.”
Last month, a Connecticut-based advocacy group called the University Network for Human Rights published the results of an informal survey of residents near the Denka Performance Elastomer Neoprene production facility in St. John the Baptist Parish…
It was one heck of a war. For months, the Mississippi River flowed above flood stage, putting massive amounts of water on its endangered levees. In many locations along the Mississippi, including Baton Rouge, flood duration records were shattered,…
Albert Einstein has been credited with the saying that the definition of insanity is "doing the same thing over and over again but expecting a different result." Such a statement rings true concerning the inaction of the federal government in prot…
Your recent front-page article that says Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry "jumps back" into the execution legal wrangle seems to me to be quite slanted against him. The title itself suggests needless vacillation on his part, but the real hit…
Louisiana's seven-year tax deal, aimed at bringing a cease-fire to the state's tax feuds after seven special legislative sessions across three years, hasn't ended the tax debates, which now have become central to the governor's race.
With the honesty of a woman facing a terminal diagnosis, Kathleen Babineaux Blanco recently told well-wishers that no one would have ever chosen to be governor of Louisiana when hurricanes Katrina and Rita savaged the state in 2005.
For decades, Louisiana has been ignoring the realities of transportation funding. Year after year, politicians at the state level have refused to increase the basic money for roads and bridges, which is provided by gasoline and diesel taxes.
Even John Bel Edward’s harshest critics have to admit the first-term Democratic governor is good at running budget surpluses. We recently learned that, for the third year in a row, Louisiana will have a budget surplus. The first three budgets Edwa…
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As summer was about to begin this year, author Tony Horwitz dropped dead in Washington, D.C. while on a promotional tour for his new book.
I have joined that unenviable list of people who have surrendered their emotional lives to that device from hell — the cellphone. It’s the devil, I tell ya.
Reading Mark Ballard’s on-point analysis in his recent column about why Louisiana’s rankings have been steadily dropping for decades provoked a disturbing thought. Perhaps it’s time to change the designation on our auto tags from “Louisiana: Sport…
It has become blindingly obvious that there is one and only one solution to pass rational gun control legislation, and that solution is to get rid of the Republican Party.
The University Network for Human Rights recently released the results of a health survey of the area near the Denka/DuPont plant in St. John Parish. The University Network study — which The Guardian has called “the most detailed and comprehensive …
Louisiana’s chief economic development officer, Don Pierson, was recently named to a national committee overseeing foreign investment in the United States.
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Donald Trump isn’t the problem.
More mass shootings. Two in less than a day. Domestic terrorism surpasses the global version. Each incident is another shock that we are becoming sadly adjusted to in American and global society. The new normal — rage and bullets.
Late last week, The Advocate reported three Bayou Bridge Pipeline protesters filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Baton Rouge challenging a Louisiana law aimed at protecting critical infrastructure, including pipelines, claiming that thei…
Even the president of the United States is now tweeting out conspiracy theories. In some quarters, the conspiracy theory close to home is the Baton Rouge Area Foundation, pulling strings from its aerie on the top floor of the IBM building in downtown.
New Orleans drivers, consider yourselves warned: School’s back in, which means those always-controversial speeding cameras are back on.
The Mike Yenni era in Jefferson Parish unofficially ended last week, less than four years after voters promoted the former Kenner mayor to a parish presidency once held by his grandfather Joe and his uncle, who was also named Mike.
With the heated battle about a proposed relocation of Baton Rouge Zoo now over, attention rightly turns to what the Baton Rouge Recreation and Parks Commission is planning to do with the facility.
In defending the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff Office’s decision to renew a cooperation agreement with federal immigration authorities, Attorney General Jeff Landry recently used this newspaper to endorse harmful policies and stereotypes that ar…
Two mass shootings in as many days. I read in this newspaper all the responses offered by the Republicans who represent us in Washington. Let me paraphrase: "Ho hum."
Largely left out of the story about Ohio madman shooter was the fact that he was an avowed socialist and an Elizabeth Warren supporter. If he had voted for Republicans, it would be the headline of any stories about him. We shouldn't have to go hun…
The AK-47 rifle is not a suitable weapon for use by a hunter, unless they enjoy cracking a dental filling from one of the 40 bullets this deadly weapon can shoot in a few seconds.
If there is one easy talking point that ought to illustrate shallow thinking about Louisiana’s finances, it is the notion that the state budget’s new annual surpluses are a sign of overly high taxes.
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U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise said he doesn’t think shootings should be used as political fodder. And all our Republican legislators seem to agree. I am curious. When is it appropriate for our elected officials to debate and legislate appropriate gun co…
For decades, Big Pharma has raised drug prices with impunity. Here in Louisiana, the average annual cost of brand-name prescription drug treatment increased 58% between 2012 and 2017, while the annual income for Louisianans increased only 7.8%. Pr…
I found the recent letter from Joseph Berey to be very insightful, and it presented some strong points that any government entity should consider before making regulations to raise the minimum wage on either the local or national levels. I’d like …
What are owners and supporters of assault rifles afraid of?
Jefferson Hughes III has won two elections to the state Supreme Court — most recently in 2018 when he ran unopposed.
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I was born in New Orleans in 1943, during segregation. There were not many opportunities for me, as a woman of color. I had to locate to a more progressive city in order to achieve a successful future. Most of my family are still living there, and…
In February, a group of Vietnamese refugees stood outside a New Orleans City Council meeting and, alongside their American-born neighbors, protested a proposed gas plant that would emit toxic pollution and cost taxpayers $210,000,000. Four months …
The U.S. Treasury has a problem worthy of an intervention. It’s hoarding $25 billion in matured, uncashed savings bonds that belong to people across this country, including a lot of folks in Louisiana.
Isn’t it sad that many of our members of Congress have declared that they will not support any kind of gun laws? Even U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise, who almost lost his life by gunfire. still declares that he will not support any kind of new gun laws. O…