As memory of the overly hot days without power after Hurricane Ida recedes, talk about “hardening” the electrical grid will become more abstract.
The exercise is as old as the Republic, but the first thing you need to understand about redistricting is that hot-water cornbread is as ubiquitous in north Louisiana as étouffée is in the south, says Rick Gallot, the Ruston Democratic representat…
Bureaucracy doesn’t faze Houma Republican state Rep. Tanner Magee. You deal with it, he says, particularly when trying to find temporary shelter for the 10,000 Terrebonne Parish families left homeless by Hurricane Ida.
Throughout my life, our family gatherings were basically cops and pastors of all political stripes and religious philosophies sitting together to break bread and explore differences, usually at the top of their lungs. Then everyone hugged, rearmed…
All we know is that someone or a group of someones hacked into a public Zoom meeting to throw up explicit scenes of people having sex when Louisiana Public Service Commission members tried to discuss what happened to utility and telecommunications…
Now that most people have their power restored — a lot faster than in the past — Louisiana can transition back to more divisive issues, like abortion.
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Along with tossing out spoiled food and mucking out saturated Sheetrock, another hallmark of a major Louisiana storm is postponing elections.
One of the silver linings of being without power for several days is that neighbors sit outside and visit, rather than cocoon in air conditioning and Netflix.
Like the dog that finally caught the car, Louisiana officials are faced with the “now what?” question.
“They can’t arrest all of us,” the Rev. Tony Spell, of Central, shouted last week spurring an angry crowd of people who refused to don masks at a hearing convened to decide whether the governor has the authority to order school children to wear ma…
To vaccinate or not has become the region’s gravest social dilemma.
Angry Louisiana conservatives are looking for reasons why they lost last week’s two-day veto override session that failed to overcome a single bill rejected by Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards.
The Republican majorities in the Legislature made history. They will convene noon Tuesday for the first session, ever, to override the vetoed bills of a governor — bringing Louisiana fully into the partisan warfare that has erupted across the nation.
When children are victims in, say, a car wreck and are awarded substantial damages by the court, judges generally appoint someone to ensure the money is spent on medical care and education rather than on a new boat for Dad.
Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards took several punches last week from the Republican legislative majority and likely will take several more this week as GOP lawmakers march toward an unprecedented special session to override his vetoes.
As a young student, the father of incoming LSU President William F. Tate IV gave him a copy of the U.S. Constitution. “When I was teenager, my father handed me the Federalist Papers and basically said ‘You have to understand this’,” Tate recalled …
Sen. Jay Luneau calls them “the twins” because of how often they testify side-by-side before his Senate Labor & Industrial Relations Committee, arguing diametrically opposed views.
A lot of the television and social media coverage last week centered on state Rep. Malinda White being hustled into a side room after losing her temper at a colleague in the center aisle of the Louisiana House chamber. Not as much publicity surrou…
Will Harrell, a criminal justice warrior at the State Capitol, scolded himself last week for thinking he saw a sea change in the traditional tough-on-crime stance that has made Louisiana a world leader for incarcerating its population. What he rea…
During last week’s Louisiana House debate over restricting the rights of transgender teens to participate in school athletics, newly elected Rep. Laurie Schlegel, the Jefferson Republican handling the bill, was asked for a single example of this b…
The state’s two chief economists, who during the lean years double as punching bags for frustrated legislators, almost got through last week’s Revenue Estimating Conference with lawmakers smiling at reports of stronger than expected tax receipts.
Nailing lawyers who represent injured people against business and insurance companies was a main theme of last year’s legislative session and a secondary melody in the past few annual gatherings.
Louisiana legislators have always known that when their ideas are a bridge too far for their colleagues, they can save face by turning their bill into a “study resolution” — gather facts, see what other states do, regroup to fight another day.
Several hundred seniors, mostly African American, gathered in Baton Rouge back in 2014 to visit with their elected officials.
Louisiana legislators have made multiple assaults — with little success over the years — against the vast array of tax exemptions, credits, deductions, and rebates that annually pull hundreds of millions of dollars out of the state Treasury.
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.
The chief executives of Georgia’s two largest corporations — Delta Air Lines and Coca-Cola — issued statements Wednesday opposing Georgia’s new voting laws.
Republican attorneys general often tilt at partisan windmills hoping to disrupt what they call the socialist agenda of Democrats. A lawsuit to overturn the presidential election results, unsuccessful because it recycled unfounded claims of electio…
Most media coverage of the flaws in Louisiana’s unemployment benefits system start with an individual, sometimes in tears but always angry, telling of six- or seven-hour waits on the phone and no check.
Today is the 56th anniversary of Bloody Sunday when African Americans peacefully demonstrating their desire to exercise their right to vote were met at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma by Alabama state troopers swinging batons and sho…
The federal Transportation Security Administration last week tweeted out a reminder that airline travelers are going to need REAL ID-compliant driver’s licenses with a Gold Star in order to fly starting Oct. 1, 2021.
Like a child yelling, “1,2,3, not me” on the playground, Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott is blaming bureaucrats and renewable energy for the historic collapse of that state’s power supply during last week’s unprecedented cold that cost 30 Texans…
Without a doubt, Louisiana is a fossil fuels state whose economy is dependent on the royalties, taxes — an estimated $373 million this year — and the 48,000 jobs oil and gas creates.
How about a statue of “Whipped Pete”?
“Cut that crap out,” U.S. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy reportedly told Republican congressmen in a private meeting Wednesday. "No more attacks to one another," he tweeted later in the day.
Karen Haymon, of Alexandria, estimated she was about 50 yards from the U.S. Capitol steps chanting "U.S.A." when the first tear gas canisters were set off.
Grambling State University President Rick Gallot recalled a stab of fear that shot through him when he saw Lee Hall on the campus of the school founded in 1901 to educate Black students forbidden from attending the state’s public institutions.
It was Vic Stelly’s wife of 60 years, Terry, dying only 14 hours after he, both of COVID-19 complications, that grabbed the attention of people around the nation.
That Louisiana’s Republican congressmen won’t acknowledge Joe Biden’s victory — even after the Electoral College voted decisively last week — is more political calculation than “Profiles in Courage.”
Despite President Donald Trump’s efforts, all 50 states by Tuesday had certified the vote from the presidential election that took place nearly six weeks ago. Democratic candidate Joe Biden received 7 million more votes than the Republican incumbent.
Back in mid-October, U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy was effusive about President Donald Trump’s fast-tracking of a COVID-19 vaccine that now will become available by the end of next week. “There will be the highest praise,” Cassidy said Oct. 11.
Gov. John Bel Edwards planned to serve mustard greens grown in his garden but described this year’s Thanksgiving as far different than last year’s.
The people choosing LSU’s next leader talk a lot about diversity and inclusion, creating an environment where young students can thrive regardless of race, gender and background.
On the phone last week, she sounded like a typical grandmother — full of sage of advice and unqualified love — until she suggested seppuku for everyone who said Joe Biden is now president-elect. They’re all communists who stole the election from P…
Less than a month after Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards and Republican Attorney General Jeff Landy took their oaths of office in January 2016, they were quarreling over an issue on which they both fundamentally agreed.
As the third legislative session of the year — the second called by the legislators themselves — sputtered to a close, a reasonable question is whether it was all worth it?
Last week, Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin did as he said he would and appealed the court order that established how Louisiana is voting in the Nov. 3 election.
Inevitably while watching evangelist revival meetings end with a teary flock of the newly converted head to the altar full of commitment and purpose, my late father-in-law, a Baptist minister, would wonder aloud how many would continue going to ch…
Gov. John Bel Edwards was correct when he said the special session, which only is supposed to focus on one or two items, will be more like a regular session with 70 issues on the agenda.
It was one of those moments that in hindsight Lake Charles Mayor Nic Hunter wishes he would have knocked on wood and spit three times as he said on Aug. 19: “We’ll be in decent in shape unless a hurricane hits us.”
Some racism is easy to identify: riots at Ole Miss; George Wallace blocking the door at the University of Alabama; torchlight parades and death at the University of Virginia.