As the Louisiana Legislature heads into its final 48 hours of what has been two back-to-back sessions, overwhelming Republican majorities were able to strip the name of George Floyd, whose death while being detained by Minneapolis police set off a…
Mark Ballard: Louisiana lawmakers pushing for lower auto insurance rates set up for guerilla warfare
Louisiana’s Republican legislative leaders and the Democratic governor’s top assistants have gathered to discuss how far to upend the state’s civil justice system in pursuit of lower auto insurance rates.
Uniformed Girl Scouts prowled the halls of the State Capitol in past years, helping their adult leaders corral votes for state aid to save their camp in Tangipahoa Parish.
In a body with a history of flubs — think weight restrictions for pole dancers — one of the most embarrassing moments came last week when Louisiana legislators triumphantly passed a bill aimed at lowering auto insurance rates by curtailing lawsuit…
In his spirited attempt to pass legislation that he says will lower auto insurance prices by 25%, Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon has taken to blaming boogeymen: television lawyers.
Community activist Edgar Cage threw up his hands.
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State Sen. Jay Luneau was a bit irritated after Republicans summarily shot down his suggested alternatives to tort reform during this first week of the renewed session.
Right-wing radio icon Moon Griffon tried and tried again.
Interim LSU System President Tom Galligan says he sees a glass as half full “even when the glass is broken.”
One good thing about the novel coronavirus is the brief respite in the ongoing interparty bickering over whose mother wears Army boots.
As bad as the state budget will fare because of a drop in sales tax revenues from closed businesses and high unemployment, the real crisis will be in Louisiana’s parish and municipal governments.
After a month of coronavirus business closures and layoffs, the cavalry should start arriving in Louisiana by April 24 with about $1.8 billion in federal aid.
Remember a few weeks ago when the Louisiana Legislature was gearing up for a big fight on tort reform?
The last time a crisis closed businesses and threw Louisiana residents out of work — as the response to COVID-19 has done — the Louisiana Legislature hopped to and slashed hundreds of millions of dollars in spending to stanch a fast evaporating st…
The State Bond Commission got ink around the world and praise from right-wingers by proclaiming in August 2018 Louisiana would not do business with two of the nation’s largest banks because of their gun policies, which a majority on the panel cons…
Well-funded battle axes will swing at the State Capitol as Democratic and Republican legislators wage war over tort reform when the Louisiana Legislature convenes a week from Monday.
Much was made in last fall’s campaign of a U.S. News & World Report ranking that named Louisiana as the worst state in the nation.
Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards last week presented olive branches to a Republican majority bent on sweeping legislation that would limit the ability to sue businesses in hopes of lowering auto insurance premiums and spurring economic development.
Commissioner of Administration Jay Dardenne said the state budget would be the biggest issue facing the Louisiana Legislature that begins in one month on March 9.
In what’s becoming something of a tradition for Louisiana governors entering their second term, Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards last week weighed in on how to govern LSU, basically backing a move to upend the system put in place by his predecesso…
I have a cousin, Anders, who runs a dairy with his iPhone.
Upon being sworn in Monday, John Bel Edwards will continue to be the stubborn blue stain on an otherwise ruby red political carpet that stretches 1,700 miles from Charleston, South Carolina, to El Paso, Texas.
Moments after his sweeping “tort reform” legislation was spiked by a state Senate committee back in May, Rep. Kirk Talbot smiled and predicted that his bill would become a centerpiece of the fall campaigns and of the upcoming legislative session.
District Attorney Don Burkett, of Many, keeps a photo of Wesley Mercer near his desk and pulls it out whenever he’s frustrated.
Three weeks after winning a tight reelection, Gov. John Bel Edwards was in a playful mood as LSU prepared Thursday to head for Atlanta to contest the SEC championship — a position that five months ago most fans thought improbable.
Newly elected state Rep. Danny McCormick ran on many issues, but his main one is protecting his way of life.
Elections are over. The governor is a Democrat, and the Legislature is mostly Republican.
Never before has a president of the United States campaigned so hard for a Louisiana gubernatorial candidate.
Gov. John Bel Edwards and his team has spent much of the last week at forums in Lafayette, Alexandria and elsewhere talking about the good Medicaid brings a state as poor as Louisiana and how the policies backed by his Republican opponent would le…
Last week business leaders gathered in Baton Rouge to discuss how to improve Louisiana’s economic future.
The late great political commentator John Maginnis wrote that Louisiana voters like their scoundrels going back to the pirate Jean Lafitte.
Gubernatorial candidates danced around all sorts of issues during the campaign, but never spoke directly about persistent poverty — the key reason why the state scores so low on so many rankings.
The moment that best portrays this tepid 2019 gubernatorial campaign was when the three major candidates were asked during the recent Louisiana Public Broadcasting/Council for A Better Louisiana debate to explain how each planned to pay for laudab…
The brand-new $9 million system Louisiana taxpayers bought so that the 900 or so citizens of the northeast Louisiana town of St. Joseph could drink water without dangerous levels of lead and copper has developed another health issue that will be e…
With transcripts, contracts and secret reports arrayed around her, Kenner Republican Rep. Julie Stokes was drawing lines, writing out what she knows and what she doesn’t on two pads of paper.
In Louisiana, gun control is one of those issues, like abortion, on which the majority pretty much agrees regardless of party.
The first gubernatorial campaign I really remember was in 1979, and that was because I looked into the eyes of most of the nine candidates at St. Joseph Catholic Church’s festival in Chauvin.
A Louisiana state health department evaluator fell asleep during the sales pitch for one of the companies trying to land a state contract worth billions.
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…
Jim Engster of “Talk Louisiana” has been gathering the opinions of folks around town about the last 10 governors, and it was my turn last week to rank them.
After a few weeks of trying to link Gov. John Bel Edwards with supporting unchecked immigration, the Democratic governor’s Republican opponents also are blaming his “trial lawyer” ways for what they call Louisiana’s sluggish economy.
What with the Congressional censure that passed Tuesday and an impeachment resolution that failed Wednesday, voters overlooked how effectively President Donald Trump shifted the politics of his 2020 reelection campaign and unintentionally, the dis…
Before the storm dominated everyone’s thoughts, last week marked the beginning of a political season that will dominate public conversation for the next dozen weeks.
The governor’s election is somewhat of a snoozer, so far.
Nationally, if pundits and politicos are to be believed, the political “Year of the Woman,” has been fueled by dislike for President Donald Trump.
The Louisiana Legislature’s inability to address the high cost of auto insurance is sure to be a potent issue in this fall’s elections.
The iconic image of this class of legislators who finished their last session Thursday evening was how they finished their first: charging the podium in a scrum to pass $1 billion of temporary taxes that would expire and set up another crisis in 2018.
This session of the Louisiana Legislature will be remembered more for the carcasses left than the policies addressed.
What was called the "most important bill" of the session — one promoters said would lower Louisiana’s high auto insurance rates — fell apart after members of a Senate committee showed that the legislation was what opponents contended all along: an…
A few minutes after the Louisiana Senate on Monday overwhelmingly rejected allowing a statewide vote to abolish the death penalty, senators ran through their “sanctity of life” speeches again then approved one of the strictest bans on abortion.
After hearing a legion of local officials sharply criticize his proposed system for handling the Industrial Tax Exemption Program, in which the state forgives a corporation’s local property taxes, state Sen. Bodi White had enough.