Commentary
Ruling for Gov. Edwards is as much a loss for Jeff Landry as it is for House Republicans
In an attempt to be cute, Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry tweeted Monday that the statute Republicans in the Louisiana House used to order a halt to the governor’s public health emergency order is so simple that even a Bama fan can understand it. Landry’s tweet — meant as an insult to Gov. John Bel […]
How you can help veterans — not just on Veterans Day, but every day
By Shelley MacDermid Wadsworth, Purdue University As the nation celebrates our 17 million living veterans, it is also important to know that the number of these heroes who are ending their own lives prematurely is rising. In the general population, suicide is the 10th most common cause of death, but among veterans with PTSD, it’s […]
Biden wins – experts on what it means for race relations, US foreign policy and the Supreme Court
Brian J Purnell, Bowdoin College; Morgan Marietta, University of Massachusetts Lowell, and Neta C. Crawford, Boston University The American public has had its say and for the first time in a generation denied a sitting president a second term. President Donald Trump’s tenure lasted just four years, but in that time he dragged policy on […]
Arsonist’s absurd argument that he picked churches made up of wood, not churches made up of Black people
If a person were to incinerate three Louisiana synagogues, three Louisiana mosques or three Louisiana Kingdom Halls, it would be a safe assumption that the arsonist was deliberately attacking Jews, Muslims or Jehovah’s Witnesses. There are not many synagogues, mosques and Kingdom Halls around — at least not compared to the number of churches. Thus, […]
Count every vote: Patience is a Democratic virtue
By Micah W. Kubic November 3, 2020 In an unprecedented year, it’s only natural that we have an unprecedented election. It’s the first in most of our lifetimes to occur during a global pandemic, and one in which an unprecedented number of ballots, in Florida and nationwide, will be cast after being mailed to voters. […]
Access to abortion should not depend on where you live
By Petrice Sams-Abiodun On Tuesday, November 3, we will have the final opportunity to vote on Constitutional Amendment 1, which seeks to add anti-abortion language to the Louisiana State Constitution. This amendment is dangerous, and confusing. If Roe v. Wade is overturned, Amendment 1 would make court challenges to abortion restrictions extremely difficult in Louisiana. […]
Is House Republicans’ petition to end public health order more reckless or feckless?
After spending months arguing that Gov. John Bel Edwards unlawfully enacted COVID-19 restrictions and describing themselves as the guardians of freedom, Louisiana’s Republican House members were the epitome of conviction and resistance last week when they produced a sternly worded petition that puts the governor in time out. If it ever goes into effect (or […]
The ongoing pandemic requires a strong government response, not platitudes about personal freedoms
Wednesday evening, during a meeting of one of the three state Senate judiciary committees, Rep. Phillip DeVillier, R-Eunice, made remarks that demonstrated once again that even now — as almost 5,600 people in Louisiana are known to have succumbed to COVID-19 — not enough members of his party are taking the pandemic seriously. DeVillier was […]
Anti ‘Defund the Police’ bill puts demagoguery over commitment to local governance
By Chris Kaiser Louisiana legislators have recently fast-tracked a bill – House Bill 38 – that would punish cities and parishes that reduce their police budgets by more than 10 percent. Nevermind that no municipality or parish in Louisiana has made any move to defund the police and that Louisianians face urgent challenges like the COVID-19 pandemic […]
Where’s Louisiana Tech’s loyalty to professors whose opinions provoke death threats?
By Andrew C. McKevitt Louisiana Tech’s motto is “Ever Loyal Be.” This month I learned those words come with an asterisk. When a politically motivated outrage mob deliberately twisted and misrepresented my words in an effort to get me fired and chill free speech on college campuses, Louisiana Tech’s leaders caved. In the process they […]
Republican ‘hyper partisan’ attempt to curtail governor’s power could decrease access to the polls
When state Sen. Sharon Hewitt was taking questions from her Senate colleagues Oct. 1 about a bill she’d drafted to weaken the governor’s role in establishing an emergency election plan, Sen. Regina Barrow asked Hewitt point blank, “Is this a method to try to suppress the vote?” Though Hewitt, a Slidell Republican, had previously expressed […]
Nursing home-visitation bill addresses a real problem in a problematic way
Hours before my mother died I spoonfed her vanilla ice cream. Sprinkled into the dessert was a vitamin she’d been refusing to take. But I pleaded with her. I asked her to please take it — if only for me — and though she had stopped opening her mouth to talk, she eventually opened up […]