Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
Publisher Jeremy Alford was enjoying boiled crawfish with his family last Friday when he received a text message from a longtime Capitol player, who wrote he felt like Louisianans were at a breaking point when it comes to status quo in government and politics. The mood of the electorate would soon make way for change, the messenger said, before asking Alford for his thoughts.
Gov. John Bel Edwards makes a point while speaking at the annual meeting of Jump Start, which allows high school students to get workforce training in addition to regular academic classes, Tuesday Jan. 23, 2018, in Baton Rouge, La. It's not exactly breaking news that Gov. John Bel Edwards' 2105 election didn't usher in a Democratic wave in Louisiana.
Stephen Waguespack, President & CEO of the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry, speaks outside the House Ways and Means Committee after HB628 by sponsor State Rep. Sam Jones,D-Franklin, concerning the commercial activity tax, or 'CAT,' effectively died for the legislative sesssion, after Jones voluntarily deferred it in the committee, Tuesday, April 25, 2017. The bill was the centerpiece of Gov. John Bel Edwards' tax package.
Nearly two years after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that prison inmates who killed as teenagers are capable of change, the question remains unresolved: Which ones deserve a second chance? Now the ruling - in favor of a 71-year-old Louisiana inmate still awaiting a parole hearing - is being tested again in that state, where prosecutors have moved to keep 1 in 3 offenders imprisoned for crimes committed as juveniles locked up for good. "There is no possible way to square these numbers with the directive of the Supreme Court," said Jill Pasquarella, supervising attorney with the Louisiana Center for Children's Rights, which found that district attorneys are seeking to deny parole eligibility to 84 of 255 juvenile life inmates.
In this February 1964 file photo, Henry Montgomery, flanked by two deputies, awaits the verdict in his trial for the murder of Deputy Sheriff Charles H. Hurt in Baton Rouge, La.
Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., who said last week he'll step down in the coming weeks due to mounting allegations of sexual misconduct, attends a hearing of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2017. Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., who said last week he'll step down in the coming weeks due to mounting allegations of sexual misconduct, attends a hearing of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2017.
A decade or two ago, Louisiana's moderate-to-conservative Democrats like John Breaux in the Senate and Billy Tauzin in the House were shrewd, capable and willing to buck their party leadership as centrists in either chamber. They brokered deals with President Ronald Reagan or the Bushes across party lines, quite often winning special laws or tax provisions for Louisiana.
Louisiana residents displaced by the August 2016 flooding and living in mobile homes provided by the federal government can stay in them until May. Louisiana's homeland security office says the Federal Emergency Management Agency agreed to the state's request to extend the temporary housing program - but refused to continue waiving rent for the mobile homes. Jim Waskom, director of the Governor's Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, said the rent requirement could create obstacles for some displaced flood victims.
Gov. John Bel Edwards ' administration told the Louisiana House leadership Tuesday it can have another crack at approving $15.4 billion worth of state Medicaid contract extensions next week if it wants. But the governor will continue to circumvent the Legislature and put the contracts in place anyway if the House doesn't act.
Sen. Kennedy cited concerns with the nomination process leading to Duncan's selection and the paperwork submitted to Congress regarding the nomination as prompting his hesitation. Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy said he will support 5th Circuit Court of Appeals nominee Kyle Duncan, amid mounting criticism of Kennedy's hesitation from conservatives in his home state and Washington.
Republican Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana plans to back President Trump's judicial nominee for the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, said The Advocate, a Baton Rouge newspaper, on Thursday. Mr. Kennedy had expressed frustration earlier in the week with Kyle Duncan, who the president tapped to fill a vacancy on Louisiana's federal bench.
Former State Rep. John Schroder, of Covington, answers a question. The Press Club of Baton Rouge hosted three of the four candidates for the office of Louisiana Treasurer Monday Sept.
LaCaze was scheduled to stand trial in the 10th Judicial District Court but instead pleaded guilty to manslaughter prior to trial. District Judge Desiree Dyess sentenced LaCaze to an agreed upon term of 17 years in prison and ordered her sentence to begin immediately.
Jones, who has spent nearly 50 years in prison, could be freed ... . Wajeedah Jones, niece of Wilbert Jones, reaches to wipe away tears from Wilbert's sister-in-law, Wilda Jones, as family members and attorneys speak on the steps of state district court in Baton Rouge, La., Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2... .
More than two years after central Louisiana's state-owned charity hospital was closed, a legal dispute remains unsettled about whether state senators violated the law in agreeing to shutter the facility. The lawsuit accuses the Senate of flouting the open meetings law in its handling of legislation authorizing then-Gov. Bobby Jindal to close the LSU-run hospital in Pineville, Huey P. Long Medical Center.
In this Oct. 12, 2017, file photo, White House Chief of Staff John Kelly calls on a reporter during the daily briefing at the White House in Washington. Kelly told Fox News host Laura Ingraham in an interview that aired Oct. 30, 2017, that Confederate General Robert E. Lee was "an honorable man" and applying current thinking on social issues to figures in history is "very, very dangerous."
In this June 15, 2017 photo, a bipartisan group of lawmakers surround Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards as he signs 10 criminal justice bills into law during a ceremony in Baton Rouge, La. Hundreds of inmates are about to get early releases from Louisiana prisons and jails, a milestone in a push to reduce the nation's highest incarceration rate.
A new recovery program in Puerto Rico aimed at getting people back in their homes as quickly as possible after Hurricane Maria will be modeled after one used by Louisiana following the historic flooding in 2016, according to WBRZ , a Baton Rouge television station. Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rossello formerly launched Puerto Rico's version of Louisiana's Shelter at Home program Monday while Gov. John Bel Edwards and First Lady Donna Edwards were visiting the island.
Former State Rep. John Schroder, of Covington, answers a question. The Press Club of Baton Rouge hosted three of the four candidates for the office of Louisiana Treasurer Monday Sept.
In this July 12, 2017 photo, New Orleans attorney Derrick Edwards talks to reporters as he signs up as the only Democratic candidate to run for state treasurer in Baton Rouge. The major candidates vying to be Louisiana's next state treasurer are spending their final day ahead of Saturday's election trying to drum up interest for a low-interest race.