There, Louisiana Legislature, was that so hard?

Although there’s been considerable debate about who’s really been pulling the strings, Speaker Taylor Barras, R-New Iberia, is the official leader of the state House.

Many national groups hold big meetings in New Orleans every few years, but the American Library Association, which opens its national conference at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center Friday with a big-time speech by Michelle Obama, is special.

In a vacuum, “We’re No. 49!” doesn’t sound like much of an accomplishment, let alone a rousing rallying cry.

Just when it seemed as if Louisiana’s fall congressional elections would be entirely humdrum, some unexpected drama has suddenly erupted in the fight for the state’s 3rd District.

Given the humanitarian crisis playing out on the country’s southern border and in the locked-down shelters and often far-off foster homes where children ripped from their parents’ arms are being held, it was probably inevitable that political pund…

You’d think lawmakers gathered in Baton Rouge for yet another special session would have a sense of urgency, that they’d want to finally take care of business and go home. After all, the fiscal cliff that they’ve been talking about for more than t…

Steve Scalise and Cedric Richmond argue — a lot. They did it on television this weekend, in a segment on CBS’s “Face the Nation” meant to highlight a longstanding friendship that dates back to their days in the Louisiana Legislature.

Gov. John Bel Edwards opened the latest special legislative session – the third this year and seventh since he took office in 2016 – by promising to be brief, because, really, what more is there to say? And indeed, he largely skipped over the numb…

Maybe it’s time to come up with a new word and stop calling these unscheduled legislative sessions “special” — or to use the formal governmental language, “extraordinary.” Is something really special when nothing new, let alone exciting, comes out…

Perhaps nobody else who’s actually been to prison has led as charmed a life as Edwin Edwards.

Even as U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise enjoyed a much-deserved moment this week — his triumphant return to the Congressional baseball diamond a year after he was nearly fatally shot during practice for the game — the majority whip also made some big news…

Hands-down, U.S. Sen. John Kennedy has emerged as Congress’s most prolific quipster. Surely some Louisianan voters have tired of the Vanderbilt, University of Virginia and Oxford-trained lawyer’s folksy sayings by now — please, can we retire the b…

John Kennedy, Louisiana’s junior U.S. Senator, has become a celebrated talker during his short time in Washington. But sometimes you’ve got to wonder whether he even listens to the words coming out of his own mouth.

Political capital is a fleeting thing. New leaders have it, particularly when they win by the sort of landslide that New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell earned back in November. But they can also easily lose it. So maybe it wasn’t wise for Cantrell …

Follow politics long enough, and you can get inured to the all the little things that might have once given you pause, but that you come to understand as business as usual. Sometimes it takes some truly shameless behavior to really get your attention.

As always, one of the big-ticket items eligible for cuts when the state comes up short is higher education. Money for elementary and secondary education comes from a separate pot, and is protected.

After more than two years of pretty much open resistance to Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards from the harder-core conservatives who run the state House, state Rep. Lance Harris, the Alexandria representative and GOP caucus chair, tried to claim th…

It’s not often that a state like California takes its cues from the Deep South. So it was a little unexpected to see the Golden State emulate Louisiana and ditch party primaries a few years ago, and instead open its elections to all comers, with t…

Former Vice President Joe Biden came to New Orleans to talk about his new book, not his future.

Circumstances notwithstanding, Gov. John Bel Edwards generally plays the optimist in public. He talks about the great things in store once lawmakers finally get the state’s fiscal house in order, fund basic needs and steer away from the self-impos…

Back when Steve Scalise and Mitch Landrieu served together in the Louisiana Legislature, people would sometimes get the two mixed up. Makes sense. They have similar statures, hairlines, gregarious personalities, even New Orleans area roots. Pretty…

This time tomorrow, the great fiscal cliff debate of 2018 – and 2017, and 2016 – will be over. Or maybe it won’t be. That’s up to legislative leaders, who have until midnight to finally hash out a taxing and spending plan now that those temporary …

When people talk about the Stelly Plan, they mostly use the past tense. And in large part, that’s sadly accurate.

House Appropriations Chairman Cameron Henry turned some heads earlier this week when he said he’d been talking to Attorney General Jeff Landry and Treasurer John Schroder about the long-delayed budget, but hadn’t spoken to Gov. John Bel Edwards’ a…

When the bill to extend Harrah’s New Orleans Casino’s exclusive license fell apart at the end of the regular legislative session, the gambling hall’s general manager, Dan Real, suggested that parent company Caesars would take the $350 million it h…

In vetoing a bill that would have banned cities from requiring developers to include affordable housing in new projects, Gov. John Bel Edwards gave officials in New Orleans and Baton Rouge a reprieve.

A gleaming, modern hospital has replaced the old, abandoned Big Charity, and it will hopefully survive the budget standoff in Baton Rouge. All around the hulking art deco edifice, downtown New Orleans is booming.

The Louisiana Legislature is still a long way from fully funding priorities, reforming and stabilizing the tax structure and avoiding yet another fiscal cliff. Still, Monday marked a milestone in the long-running quest. House members who gathered …

There was an unmistakably hopeful note at the end of Gov. John Bel Edwards’ off-site speech to open the special legislative session on Tuesday.

Question: When is a tax cut also a tax increase?

From his seat on the Judiciary Committee, U.S. Sen. John Kennedy has had the chance to show off his legal chops. His grilling of one nominee for federal judge, Matthew Spencer Petersen, was so exacting and brutal that it went viral and caused Pete…

Gov. John Bel Edwards’ opening address ahead of the latest special legislative session was a shake-things-up speech, away from the stodgy confines of the state Capitol, where these orations take on a ceremonial air. Out in the field at the Univers…

State Sen. JP Morrell is known for wearing sneakers around the State Capitol, a fashion statement that works just as well as a metaphor. If it seemed as if the New Orleans Democrat was always on the move during the legislative session that wrapped…