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Louisianians deserve journalism that prioritizes their daily struggles, successes
Louisianians deserve news stories and columns that make their problems the priority. On June 18, 2020, five days before the Louisiana Illuminator launched, I drove to Scenic Highway in Baton Rouge to photograph the ExxonMobil refinery in case we needed pictures to illustrate either our planned story about plants claiming the pandemic prevented them from […]
As Louisiana’s COVID-19 cases spread, a gospel of selfishness spreads with it | Jarvis DeBerry
Every Christian should know the story of the legal scholar who tells Jesus he knows he’s commanded to love his neighbor as much as he loves himself but professes not to understand who his neighbor is. Without actually reciting the parable of the man who’s ambushed on Jericho Road and then revived and rescued by […]
Louisiana’s Steve Scalise is 7 months late promoting COVID-19 vaccines | Jarvis DeBerry
Approximately 210 days after Congressional leaders became eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine manufactured by Pfizer; roughly 200 days after 41-year-old Representative-elect Luke Letlow died of COVID-19; 124 days after every Louisianian 16 and up could be inoculated and four months after the 10,000th Louisianian died of COVID-19, Republican House Whip Steve Scalise had himself […]
In pushing a transgender sports ban, Louisiana Republicans manufactured a war and lost it | Jarvis DeBerry
While it may have been true during Tip O’Neil’s time that “All politics is local,” it’s been 34 years since he served as Speaker of the U.S. House and 27 years since he died. With the dominance of talk radio and cable news networks and the central role social media plays in our lives, we […]
Only 45% of staff at Louisiana’s nursing homes are fully vaccinated
Gov. John Bel Edwards and Louisiana health officials have been engaged in an all-out public relations campaign to convince skeptical Louisianians that COVID-19 is deadly, that the new Delta variant is even more infectious and that vaccination against the novel coronavirus is a proven method of avoiding life-threatening illness and death. Their campaign has included […]
Denying systemic racism exists and enacting racist policies go hand-in-hand | Jarvis DeBerry
As the Louisiana House argued this past session about whether systemic racism even exists, there was a one-on-one debate on the Senate floor between Sen. Barrow Peacock (R- Shreveport) and Sen. Katrina Jackson (D-Monroe) on whether people convicted of gun crimes as juveniles should have those records used against them if they’re caught in possession […]
Edwin Edwards, who died Monday at 93, is praised by Louisiana politicians
Politicians from across Louisiana’s political spectrum expressed their condolences Monday following the news that Edwin Edwards, Acadiana’s political superstar who served four terms as Louisiana governor and eight years in federal prison for corruption, died early that morning at 93. The news of the former governor’s death was announced by the family in a written […]
Louisiana is a safer place for Big Oil than Louisianians | Jarvis DeBerry
Rep. Danny McCormick’s attempt during the Louisiana Legislature’s session to have Louisiana designated a “fossil fuel sanctuary state” would never have passed constitutional muster. The state can’t just up and decide that its laws take priority over the country’s. But in calling out the absurdity of the Oil City Republican’s legislation, there’s a chance that […]
Science catches up to what residents of Louisiana’s ‘Cancer Alley’ have been saying about pollution | Jarvis DeBerry
If you’re ever inclined to describe how healthy you are, you’d do well to remember that the world is bigger than Louisiana and that you could simultaneously be better off than the average person here and worse than the average person in the U.S. Consider the debate about whether the communities along the Mississippi River […]
What, to the Republican, is the nineteenth of June? | Jarvis DeBerry
The headline above pays homage to one of the most powerful and brilliant speeches in American history. Frederick Douglass, the 19th century’s most eloquent abolitionist, was asked to speak at an Independence Day celebration in Rochester, New York, on July 5, 1852, and he asked his White audience a most provocative question: “What, to the […]
The tax breaks for jobs scheme isn’t working out for Louisiana | Jarvis DeBerry
You, I and every other American taxpayer helped out Marathon Petroleum during the worst of the pandemic. Then, the same year it secured its $2.1 billion in federal tax benefits — the most of any U.S. oil company — Marathon let go almost 1,920 employees. The “reductions,” to use Marathon’s word, included 45 workers at […]
Louisiana colleges and universities have out-of-date Title IX policies, attorney says
In August, the U.S. Department of Education began implementing new Title IX rules by which all schools that receive federal dollars must abide by. That means Louisiana’s Title IX policies are out of date, an attorney asked to conduct a comprehensive review of Louisiana’s public higher education campuses told the Louisiana Board of Regents Wednesday. […]