With a brown cover and less-than-gripping title, “Exploring Long-Term Solutions for Louisiana’s Tax System” is perhaps not destined for the best-seller lists.
Editor's note: This editorial, in modified form, has marked previous Easter holidays in The Advocate.
Two approaches to legalized gambling are cheek-by-jowl on the Gulf Coast. In Mississippi, casinos have been left to the marketplace, and in Louisiana, they’re much more tightly regulated.
Editor's note: This editorial, with slight modifications, has appeared on previous Good Fridays in The Advocate.
For many years, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have dithered on building a canal between the Comite and Mississippi rivers to help prevent flooding during high water in the Amite River basin.
As summer reading season approaches, meaning an especially busy time for public libraries, Baton Rouge’s new downtown branch won’t be open for business. Construction on the $19 million building was delayed for months as officials haggled with some…
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The recent fires at three black churches in St. Landry Parish underscored a powerful reality. Though the church buildings were destroyed, the congregations themselves are intact — proof enough that communities of faith are grounded in people, not …
A year ago, state Sen. JP Morrell offered a bill to require unanimous jury convictions in Louisiana. When it came to criminal law, Louisiana was an outlier. Every other state but Oregon required jurors to all agree before shipping someone off to jail.
Now that Louisiana lawmakers have convened for another session, we’d suggest that they tackle a recent Wall Street Journal piece by Barton Swaim as required reading.
When Gov. John Bel Edwards stepped forward for a teacher pay raise to be included in the new budget, he was surely embracing a popular idea in an election year. But we agree with him and with key legislative leaders of both parties that a teacher …
Few people jump for joy when a jury summons arrives in the mail. That’s why it’s called jury duty — duty being something we answer because we have to, not really because we want to.
Next week, Christians will mark the most solemn string of days on the church calendar, when the devout recall the grim pageant of violence that led to Calvary Hill.
Just about anybody can recognize the winners and losers in the debate that took place Wednesday in the State Capitol.
As the approach of Easter summons Christians to the holiest day on the church calendar, three historically black churches in St. Landry Parish lie in ruins, ravaged by fires that state fire marshal believes are connected.
Gov. John Bel Edwards is proud of adding half a million Louisianans to the rolls for government-funded health care as part of the state’s Medicaid expansion, a move largely supported by federal dollars.
After the Pelicans won the top pick in the 2012 NBA draft, they created a display featuring the Ping-Pong balls that delivered Anthony Davis to New Orleans.
In one way, Livingston Parish is an extraordinary case: Not only has there been explosive growth in the suburban area of Baton Rouge, bringing with it some urban ills, but there was one of the most dramatic rain events in America in recent years d…
There will be a few new faces in the Louisiana House of Representatives when the Legislature beings its regular session Monday. And therein lies a tale, not really of new beginnings, but of the old business of politics and deadlock.
In Louisiana, we’re just different, right? Even when it hurts us, and nowhere is that more obvious than a problem that is well-known to business owners but not so clear to most people, sales tax collections.
When it comes to the problems facing New Orleans, there’s a lot of disagreement about how to get things fixed.
What would $100 million a year buy for Louisiana?
When lawmakers from around the state gather in Baton Rouge next week for the spring legislative session, they’ll find that the city’s traffic is as bad as ever. But Baton Rouge leaders promise that the city’s snarled transportation grid will event…
We have our doubts about whether carving a separate city of St. George from southeast Baton Rouge is a good idea. Even so, we applaud how hard St. George supporters have worked to advance their plan. It seems cynical to change the rules for gettin…
When LaToya Cantrell campaigned to be the mayor of New Orleans, she pledged to do away with the city’s traffic cameras that ticket speeders, an issue that resonated with voters and no doubt helped her get elected.
If supporters of a new property tax for senior citizens in New Orleans hoped for an easier glide path by placing the measure alone on last Saturday’s ballot, they got a big surprise. The proposal went down in flames by a 2-to-1 margin.
After the disastrous flooding of 2016, the people of Louisiana have an understandable sympathy for those in Nebraska and elsewhere in the Midwest, where levees have been overtopped and thousands forced from their homes.
In a courtroom in New Orleans, the Trump administration has taken up a long-shot legal challenge to strike down the “Obamacare” law entirely — a decision that could severely reduce if not eliminate the health insurance coverage for hundreds of tho…
Even as sanitized as Hollywood must make movies for a general audience, recent big-screen films have depicted the brutal savagery of slavery for millions.
It’s funny how politicians often seem to change their minds when the shoe is on the other foot.
In Louisiana, where food rests at the center of social life, some of the best conversation happens around the dinner table.
Big institutions don’t often change easily — even when the old way of doing things isn’t working out.
While it’s become a rather bureaucratic process below the public radar, the Louisiana Constitution requires the Board of Regents to create a master plan and funding formula for higher education.
There were four stories in The Advocate on the Robert Mueller/William Barr conclusions as to President Donald Trump's culpability and not a single mention, as Democrats clamor full-throat for “full disclosure now,” as to why full disclosure of two…
Special counsel Robert Mueller’s conclusion that President Donald Trump’s campaign did not collude with Russian operatives to influence the 2016 campaign is good news. A finding of such collusion would have been a disaster, possibly prompting a co…
Now that he’s admitted to stealing taxpayer money for his personal use, former Louisiana warden Nate Cain seems likely to spend some time on the other side of the prison bars.
In an opioid addiction epidemic that’s claimed thousands of lives across America, Louisiana has ranked among the top states for the rate at which the painkiller is prescribed.
There’s nothing like coming across a cache of old home movies to wistfully remind you of days gone by, and that kind of nostalgia tugs at viewers of “Apollo 11,” a new documentary that’s recently been playing in movie theaters in Louisiana and acr…
Our hearts go out to the good people of Iowa who are suffering from historic flooding that’s ravaged thousands of homes and businesses in the Midwest.
In New Zealand, the Islamic community is burying its dead after the murderous rampage of a 28-year-old white supremacist who faces murder charges in the killing of 50 worshippers.
More than lemonade stands, questions facing business creation
To their credit, the mayors of both Baton Rouge and New Orleans have made cleaning up the landscapes of their cities a priority.
With much regret all around, the politicians and business leaders of Baton Rouge deplored the loss of several hundred jobs that were proposed but never delivered by an IBM customer contact center at the company’s downtown location.
One of the most reliable controversies, and one that has recurred frequently, is speed traps.
A “lost decade” for Louisiana.
The political appeal of a tax for services to the elderly is obvious. For one thing, members of the New Orleans City Council can tell you, the elderly vote in larger numbers.
After visiting flood-ravaged Louisiana as a presidential candidate in 2016, Donald Trump promised unwavering support for the recovery.
LSU's basketball team traveled to Nashville on Wednesday for the Southeastern Conference tournament, but their coach wasn't on the plane, and the cloud over the athletic program's integrity lingers on.
Talking to a room full of business people, Shawn Wilson had a simple statement: “I challenge any business to charge what you charged in 1989, and still stay in business.”
The U.S. Senate can move fast when it has to, particularly with an astute majority leader such as Mitch McConnell of Kentucky controlling its calendar.
Next month marks the ninth anniversary of the British Petroleum Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion off the coast of Louisiana that killed 11, injured 17 others, and spewed millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.
Louisiana residents have grown sadly accustomed to ranking last on a lot of good lists and first on a lot of bad lists — those rankings that attempt to quantify, in a number of ways, the civic health of local communities.