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When it’s cold outside, it doesn’t have to be cold inside
Our country seems to love nothing so much as a distracting and ill-timed debate, and so it was that during this week’s dangerously cold weather, a new battle in the energy culture war was heating up. Specifically, Big Oil partisans were claiming — incorrectly — that the week’s failures of the power grid proved the […]
Louisiana’s frigid temps continue; state offices closed for 3rd consecutive day
Louisiana state offices will be closed for the third consecutive day Wednesday, Commissioner of Administration Jay Dardenne announced Tuesday evening. Much of Louisiana was still dealing with the effects of a dangerous and deadly winter storm Tuesday, and Dardenne said he was keeping state offices closed “due to hazardous conditions caused by severe winter weather.” […]
Donald Trump’s cult condemns Republicans who aren’t sufficiently obedient
“Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.” – Job, circa 6th Century B.C.E., referring to the Almighty – Republicans, Saturday, referring to Donald Trump By dispatching his violent cultists to the U.S. Capitol Jan. 6, President Donald Trump could have gotten U.S. Sen Bill Cassidy killed. It wouldn’t be farfetched […]
As Trump’s mob ransacked the Capitol, a Confederate flag was the least surprising sight
Once you moved past the initial shock of seeing former President Donald Trump’s murderous goons marauding the U.S. Capitol, were you even one bit surprised to see that one guy parading inside with a Confederate battle flag? Of course you weren’t. You know that the people who’d erect a gallows outside the U.S. Capitol and […]
Louisiana officials defend oil and gas industry, criticize President Biden’s order pausing offshore drilling
Members of Louisiana’s congressional delegation and officials from the state’s executive branch lined up Wednesday alongside parish-level politicians and oil and gas lobbyists to express concern with or outright condemn a Jan. 20 executive order from President Joe Biden pausing offshore drilling. The president’s executive order, issued in the hours after he was sworn into […]
By objecting to the term ‘Cancer Alley,’ Sen. Bill Cassidy is defending polluters, not Louisiana
“He call himself a doctor?” a fuming Sharon Lavigne said of U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy Thursday morning. “What kind of doctor is he?! A doctor to just let people die?” For the record, the senior senator from Louisiana is a gastroenterologist, a physician who diagnoses and treats disorders of the digestive system, but Lavigne, a […]
EPA nominee Regan fields GOP discontent on Biden climate change orders
Michael Regan would “follow the science and follow the law” if confirmed as EPA administrator, he told the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee during a three-hour confirmation hearing Wednesday. President Joe Biden nominated Regan, who is currently the Secretary of Environmental Quality in North Carolina, for EPA administrator last month. Although Regan’s confirmation […]
Louisiana’s state agencies had trouble transitioning employees to remote work
“This won’t be in the proclamation, but it’s we know it’s something that works,” Gov. John Bel Edwards said during a COVID-19 press conference two days before Thanksgiving. “I’m encouraging employers public and private to maximize the use of telework where possible. I’ve already directed state agencies to do this, and we’re urging others to […]
We don’t have the data to show racial inequity in vaccine distribution, but we do know Louisiana
Public health professionals in Louisiana have cautioned that spotty data collection makes it impossible to know if the COVID-19 vaccine has been equitably distributed. As of last week, the state only had racial data on 44 percent of people who’d received at least one dose of the vaccine, and it didn’t have ethnic data at […]
Election reform to return as a priority for Dems in Congress
WASHINGTON—Democrats who control Congress by narrow margins and the White House are making a fresh attempt to move forward a massive package that tackles dark money in campaigns, voter suppression and election security. The architect of the bill, Rep. John Sarbanes, said in an interview that the tumultuous 2020 election was a perfect example of […]
Even as COVID-19 still rages, it’s important that we remember those we’ve lost
The 8,442 people who’ve died of COVID-19 in Louisiana puts us in the neighborhood of eight Hurricane Katrinas. That doesn’t mean we’re at 8 times the number of folks killed by Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana. That means we’re at 8 times the number of folks killed by Hurricane Katrina in the U.S. It seemed inconceivable then, […]
New Orleans and the country remember those lost to COVID-19
Of the more than 400,000 people who’ve died of COVID-19 in the United States and more than 8,300 who’ve died in Louisiana, more than 700 have died in New Orleans. City officials commemorated the city’s deaths Tuesday as President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris commemorated the country’s immense loss on the eve of […]