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Louisiana insurance commissioner race decided after candidate withdraws
One of two candidates for Louisiana insurance commissioner has dropped out of the race, giving the lone remaining candidate an automatic victory. WDSU-TV first reported Rich Weaver, a Democrat from Ascension Parish, would drop out of the race, citing a potential challenge to his candidacy. That leaves Tim Temple, a Baton Rouge Republican, as the commissioner-elect. […]
Prosecution errors alone justify clemency consideration in Louisiana death row cases
Add the name Jerry Davis to the list of people wrongly convicted of murder in Louisiana who narrowly avoided what could have been an unwarranted execution. Davis was released from Orleans Parish Justice Center on $25,000 bail late Wednesday night after his first-degree murder conviction was vacated July 26. Davis’s story lends credence to calls […]
Biden administration directs $1.2B to carbon capture projects in Louisiana, Texas
The Biden administration has awarded $1.2 billion to companies that plan to build facilities in Louisiana and Texas to remove existing carbon dioxide emissions from the atmosphere. The projects will use a technology called direct air capture (DAC), and they would be the largest of their kind in the world. Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards […]
Edwards asks pardon board to reconsider clemency for Louisiana’s death row inmates
Gov. John Bel Edwards is pressing members of the state pardon board to reconsider the fate of 56 individuals facing death sentences in Louisiana, putting him at odds with an opinion from Attorney General Jeff Landry that says the board can’t take up the cases. The condemned men, all held at the state penitentiary in […]
U.S. senators shoot blanks with Second Amendment stance on shipping companies
A long-standing bedrock conservative principle has been to minimize government interference in the free enterprise system. It’s a philosophy that holds any mingling between bureaucracy and business should be limited to activity that protects the public’s interests and while also promoting commerce. Yet a group of 15 Republican U.S. senators have gone against the grain […]
Trump makes quick but lucrative campaign stop in Louisiana
METAIRIE — Former President Donald Trump spent a few hours Tuesday evening in Louisiana among well-heeled supporters who want to return him to the White House in the 2024 election. Trump’s state campaign chairmen in his two previous presidential runs — retired shipbuilder Boysie Bollinger and developer and former banker Joe Canizaro — hosted a […]
Landry maintains huge fundraising edge in governor’s race
Candidates for Louisiana governor filed their campaign finance disclosures for a three-month period starting in early April, and they show Attorney General Jeff Landry continues to hold a decisive advantage over his opponents in fundraising. He ended the reporting period, which covered April 8 through July 6, with $9.15 million in his campaign coffer. That’s […]
These cities and parishes have the most people incarcerated in Louisiana prisons
A review of incarceration data shows some of Louisiana’s smallest parishes in terms of population are home to an inordinate number of incarcerated people. Voice of the Experienced (VOTE), an advocacy group for the incarcerated, obtained state prison demographics for 2022 from the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections. It shows the largest number […]
Louisiana AG’s fights against exonerees’ compensation are pointless, costly to taxpayers
More than nearly every other state, Louisiana has a dismal track record of wrongful incarceration. Its criminal justice system exonerates more people on a per capita basis — 1.93 for every 100,000 citizens — than anywhere else but Illinois (2.34), according to the National Registry of Exonerations. To be perfectly clear, these are people who […]
Louisiana Workforce Commission Secretary Ava Cates to resign
The lead labor administrator in Gov. John Bel Edwards’ cabinet will step down at the end of August, his office said Friday. Ava Cates will exit after helming the Louisiana Workforce Commission for nearly eight years, including through the tumult of COVID-19. The pandemic foisted historic demand for unemployment insurance on state governments that were […]
Trump to come to Louisiana for fundraiser
NEW ORLEANS — Former President Donald Trump, the heavy favorite to carry Louisiana in the 2024 election, will be back in the state later this month to attend a private fundraiser. Retired shipbuilder Boysie Bollinger and former banker Joe Canizaro, three-time state co-chairmen for the Trump campaign, are hosting a July 25 event at Canizaro’s […]
Even with historic state investment, Louisiana’s early childhood education funding will plummet
Advocates for early childhood education in Louisiana are celebrating an unprecedented state budget allocation for their cause, one that Gov. John Bel Edwards prioritized in his spending proposal. But the money made available will cover only about a quarter of the roughly 16,000 spots currently funded, leaving proponents to wonder whether momentum gained in recent […]