Stephanie Grace: Party and problems aside, most Louisiana voters still like Gov. John Bel Edwards

Governor John Bel Edwards meets with Cynthia Trahan, outside of her flood damaged home, during his tour of Derby Heights subdivision on Thursday, September 1, 2016, in Lafayette. Governor John Bel Edwards meets with Cynthia Trahan, outside of her flood damaged home, during his tour of Derby Heights subdivision on Thursday, September 1, 2016, in Lafayette.

Despite Katrina lessons, flood plan in Louisiana shows gaps

In this Saturday, Aug. 13, 2016 file aerial photo, a boat motors between flooded homes after heavy rains inundating the region, in Hammond, La. Eleven years ago, Hurricane Katrina exposed huge gaps in the disaster response plans of Louisiana and the nation.

LSU seeks new hospitals to train doctors in north Louisiana

LSU is shopping around for new health care deals in north Louisiana, hoping to move some of its doctors-in-training to more hospitals in the region because the university's relationship with the operator of its own hospitals in Shreveport and Monroe continues to deteriorate. The Associated Press reports that LSU President F. King Alexander calls the university's arrangement to have the Biomedical Research Foundation of Northwest Louisiana run the two north Louisiana hospitals "a three-and-a-half-year thorn in our side.

Louisiana Lawmakers to Determine Flooding Response

Louisiana Rep. Garret Graves says he will keep working to overhaul the way the country responds to natural disasters like this month's devastating floods in his home state. Flood waters were rising, so Rep. Garret Graves threw his kayak and paddle board on his truck, just in case.

Jeff Sadow: Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards has a chance to get it right with disaster food stamps

This time, Gov. John Bel Edwards' administration and Louisiana's Department of Children and Family Services needs to get it right. In contrast with Hurricane Katrina in 2005, state and local governments have performed admirably with rescues, evacuations, and provision of food and shelter in response to catastrophic flooding that has overtaken the Baton Rouge area.

Byron York: ‘Law and order’ becomes a major theme of GOP convention

The Trump campaign set "Make America Safe Again" as the theme of the Republican convention's first night well before the attack that killed three police officers and wounded three others in Baton Rouge. But that attack, and the earlier shooting in Dallas that killed five officers, added weight and a new emphasis to Trump's promise to protect Americans.

Medicaid expansion will impact public-private partnerships for charity hospitals

Perhaps more than in any other state, the expansion of Medicaid to give thousands of Louisiana residents no-cost health insurance stands to have a profound impact on health care - whether it's better or worse than the system that was already established to cover the needs of the poor. Louisiana on Friday is set to become the 31st state in the country to expand Medicaid under the federal Affordable Care Act.

Jim Gilmore showed Rick Santorum how it’s done

The former governor of Virginia was seen as perhaps the least competitive major candidate during the heat of the Republican primary process. Gilmore almost consistently placed last in polling and qualified to appear in only two debates until he ended his campaign in February.

Now that there’s a Democrat in gov’s office, Scott targets Louisiana

Scott announced Wednesday that he is heading next week to Louisiana, where a s pecial session of the Legislature began Monday to cover a $600 million budget shortfall. New Gov. John Bel Edwards is looking to raise the state's income tax to help cover the budget hole, over push-back from the Republican-run Legislature.

Senate passes bill to bar public funding to abortion providers

Planned Parenthood has an abortion clinic under construction on Claiborne Avenue in New Orleans that would replace its current clinic, shown in this file photo. A bill passed the Senate on Monday that would ban public funding for entities performing abortions.

Gage Skidmore / Flickr; Tony Alter / Flickr

Donald Trump has cleared the field of competitors for the Republican nomination but has still not won over one particular, and significant, constituency. Legislators have been curiously resistant to his charms, far more so than those with executive branch experience.