Govt + Politics

Residents of The Rock, an enclave of Black residents just outside Colfax in Grant Parish, stand in front of a house with signs that say "Deny the Permit" and "Stop the Burn!" The nearby Clean Harbors facility disposes of hazardous wastes that residents blame for their health issues.

LDEQ draft permit rattles neighbors of hazardous waste disposal site

BY: - March 22, 2023

COLFAX – Sliska Larry read the proposed operating permit for the expanded Clean Harbors hazardous waste disposal site, less than 2 miles from her home, with her 9-year-old grandson at her side. She instinctively pulled him closer, as if to shield him, as she absorbed its details. “It’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing,” Larry said. […]

Gov. John Bel Edwards and Shawn Wilson

Plans still shaky for BR-NOLA passenger rail

BY: - March 22, 2023

The Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development has about two weeks left to draft its initial plans for a proposed passenger rail line between Baton Rouge and New Orleans.  Act 764, which lawmakers passed last year, calls for DOTD to prepare the scope, schedule and budget to secure all necessary approvals and permits to begin […]

Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality Secretary Chuck Carr Brown speaks from a lectern

Opinions vary on departing DEQ Secretary Chuck Carr Brown; data is definitive

BY: - March 22, 2023

It’s not unusual that a state agency leader leaves during the last year of a governor’s term, so the exit of Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality Secretary Chuck Carr Brown doesn’t jump out as out of the ordinary. Transportation Secretary Shawn Wilson resigned to enter the governor’s race, but there’s no indication Brown has any […]

Supporters of former President Donald Trump pose for a group photo on the Louisiana State Capitol steps

Trump’s possible arrest by Manhattan DA blasted by U.S. House GOP leaders

BY: - March 21, 2023

Former President Donald Trump’s claim that he would be arrested Tuesday had not materialized by early evening on the East Coast, but U.S. House Republicans harshly criticized any such move as an abuse of prosecutorial authority. In an all-caps post to his social media site, Truth Social, on Saturday, Trump predicted that he would be […]

The Louisiana State Capitol

Proposal would give Louisiana lawmakers their first pay raise in four decades

BY: - March 21, 2023

A bill the Louisiana Legislature will consider would give state lawmakers their first raise in over 40 years.  House Bill 149, filed by Rep. Joe Marino, I-Gretna, would increase legislators’ salaries from $16,800 to $60,000. The amounts do not include per diem pay that each lawmaker is paid for each day they work. Those payments […]

A man wearing a suit sings. Behind him are several women.

Louisiana Republicans rally for Trump on Capitol steps amid arrest rumors 

BY: - March 21, 2023

A small group of Louisiana Republicans rallied Tuesday outside the State Capitol in support of former President Donald Trump amid rumors that he will be arrested in New York City.  The rally, one of several held across the country, was spurred by a social media post in which Trump claimed that he would be indicted. […]

Entrance to Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola

Louisiana spent $7.7 million on death penalty defense. It hasn’t executed anyone in 13 years.

BY: - March 21, 2023

Louisiana spent $7.7 million providing legal defense to people facing the death penalty in 2022, according to the Louisiana Public Defender’s Office, even though the state hasn’t executed anyone in 13 years.  The most recently Louisiana has put someone to death was Gerald Bordelon in January 2010, after he waived his right to legal appeals […]

Close-up Of A Woman's Hand Taking Medicine Over Wooden Desk

Ending a pregnancy in 14 states leaves few options. Some are looking to Europe and India for help.

BY: - March 20, 2023

The pills came in a dark salmon-colored envelope sealed with a plastic covering that traveled more than 7,000 miles, over a dozen time zones from Nagpur, India, in almost exactly one week. They were placed partially under the doormat of a home in a state with one of the most restrictive abortion bans in the […]

President Joe Biden delivers the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress as Vice President Kamala Harris and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-California, listen

Biden administration details potential cuts in education, food aid and more under GOP plan

BY: - March 20, 2023

WASHINGTON — Federal departments and agencies say U.S. House Republicans’ plans to cut federal spending would result in reductions to key programs like food aid, education assistance and wildfire management.  The series of letters from across the federal government released Monday detail exactly how plans to cut at least $130 billion in domestic spending during […]

An LNG tanker is docked at an export terminal

‘Sacrifice zone’: Gulf Coast helps meet global natural gas needs, but at what cost?

BY: - March 20, 2023

About 30 miles south of New Orleans, a construction site visible from space is rising. Sandwiched between the Mississippi River and disappearing wetlands, the 632-acre site is visited by a stream of tipper trucks and concrete mixers that stir up dust on Louisiana 23, the state highway that goes down to Venice, the last spot […]

COMMENTARY
Entertainers on the Big Drag Bus wave are seen through its windows as it rolls down a Nashville street.

Drag queen bill sets the goal posts on obscenity around only LGBTQ folks

BY: - March 19, 2023

In 1964, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart was asked for his definition of obscenity during arguments in Jacobellis v. Ohio, the case in which a movie theater owner was charged with obscenity for showing a French film depicting the story of a woman who committed adultery. Potter famously said: “I know it when I […]

Limits on foreign ownership of U.S. farmland gain support in Congress, despite skepticism

BY: - March 19, 2023

WASHINGTON — Bipartisan momentum is building in Congress to restrict China and other foreign adversaries from purchasing U.S. farmland, a reflection of a similar push by some states as well as apprehension over Chinese spy balloons, rising land prices and growing international competition.  “Foreign ownership of agricultural land threatens small family farms and the overall […]