News
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 […]
House petition case: Gov. asks court to stop GOP opponents from interfering with orders
Gov. John Bel Edwards scored an early victory last week in the second round of the Edwards v. House petition case in which his Republican opponents tried to employ a never-before-used statute to temporarily suspend the state’s COVID-19 restrictions last year. At the July 12 hearing, Judge William Morvant in the 19th Judicial District Court […]
Ray Belton, Southern University’s president-chancellor, plans to retire in 2022
After seven years as the Southern University system’s president-chancellor, Ray Belton announced to the Southern University Board of Supervisors Friday morning he will retire in the fall of 2022. “This is a good day, I’ve been truly blessed,” Belton said during the meeting. Belton said he took on the role as president-chancellor “to provide for […]
Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards sounds the alarm on spiking COVID-19 numbers, says ‘90% of cases are wholly preventable’
BATON ROUGE — Gov. John Bel Edwards addressed the gravity of surging COVID-19 cases across the state in a Friday press conference, but he said he does not plan to implement any additional restrictions. “At the moment, I am not considering reimposing mitigation measures or mandates,” Edwards said. “We will obviously continue to look at […]
Louisiana’s prison system allowing in-person visits with attorneys again
The Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections has started to allow attorneys back into state prisons for in-person visits with incarcerated clients. “Our institutions are encouraging Zoom meetings for visits. If necessary, they will allow non-contact visits for attorneys,” wrote Ken Pastorick, spokesman for the prison system, in an email earlier this month. Attorneys […]
Edwin Edwards to lie in state Saturday at the Louisiana Capitol
BATON ROUGE – Former Louisiana Governor Edwin Edwards, who died Monday at age 93, will lie in state Saturday in the Memorial Hall of the Louisiana Capitol, according to a news release from the Louisiana Legislature. Public viewing is available from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.. From 10 a.m. to noon, Louisiana Public broadcasting will […]
Louisiana’s Election Integrity Commission folds after two meetings
After holding just two organizational meetings since it was founded this year in response to baseless allegations of voter fraud, the Louisiana Commission on Election Integrity and Voting was suspended on Thursday. Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin made the announcement in a news release, thanking the members for their service and saying he needs to […]
EPA should force Louisiana to curb air pollution, environmentalists say
Environmental groups are calling on the Environmental Protection Agency to reject Louisiana’s draft proposal to meet federally-mandated pollution reductions and instead enforce its own federal plan in place of the state’s, which they say ignores key sources of pollution that burden national parks and majority-Black communities. In a Wednesday news release, the Sierra Club and […]
U.S. House to vote on next week on expanding PFAS regulation, backers say
WASHINGTON—Members of Congress and Biden administration officials at a conference on Wednesday outlined how they’re attempting to regulate toxic chemicals found in drinking water—including an upcoming vote in the U.S. House. EPA Administrator Michael Regan, a former top environmental official in North Carolina, said the agency is currently in the process of regulating two of […]
Biden meets with mayors and governors on infrastructure package
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden met with a group of governors and mayors on Wednesday as he seeks to build support for a massive federal infrastructure package awaiting action from Congress. The local officials joining Biden in the Oval Office included Mayors Nan Whaley of Dayton, Ohio; Kate Gallego of Phoenix, Ariz., and Michael Hancock, […]
Chuck Schumer: Congress should legalize weed on the federal level
WASHINGTON — The top Democrat in the U.S. Senate says decriminalizing marijuana at the federal level is a change that’s “long overdue,” and that he’s prioritizing that effort amid a growing number of states legalizing cannabis. To that end, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Wednesday unveiled a draft proposal for removing cannabis from the federal […]
Unvaccinated Louisiana residents face heightened risk of COVID-19 amid new spike
With a confirmed surge in COVID-19 cases, the Louisiana Health Department warned residents that unvaccinated people were at much higher risk during the ongoing pandemic. On Wednesday, the state reported 1,936 new COVID-19 cases, 10 new deaths, 468 COVID-19 patients hospitalized and 40 COVID-19 patients on ventilators. Since May, according to the health department, 94% […]