Louisiana
Who is Mike Johnson? New U.S. House speaker belongs to GOP’s religious conservative wing
Before a relatively short time in elected office, new U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana was a constitutional lawyer deeply involved in religious causes. Prior to a short stint in the Louisiana Legislature, Johnson spent two decades as a public interest lawyer mainly representing clients in so-called religious liberty litigation, he said in an […]
Bipartisan U.S. Senate group to travel to East Asia amid rising China tensions
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Idaho Republican U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo will lead a bipartisan delegation to China, Japan and South Korea next week, Schumer’s office said Tuesday. The trip, scheduled for a week when the Senate will not be in session, comes amid escalating tensions with China, including the country’s internet regulator […]
It’s hazing season on college campuses. State safeguards are uneven
Max Gruver spent the early morning hours of Sept. 14, 2017, heavily intoxicated and passed out on a couch inside the Phi Delta Theta chapter house at Louisiana State University. He had been forced to repeatedly chug 190-proof Diesel liquor in a hazing ritual called “Bible Study,” during which pledges are quizzed on fraternity facts. […]
Abortion-ban states pour millions into pregnancy centers with little medical care
After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year, Louisiana Republican state Sen. Beth Mizell looked for a way to address her state’s abysmal record on infant and maternal mortality, preterm births and low birth weight. Louisiana has one of the nation’s strictest abortion bans, with no exceptions for rape or incest. Mizell […]
His mother was murdered. He wants Louisiana to spare her killer’s life.
In 1996, Shareef Cousin was 16. While his peers worried about prom and house chores, he was worried about being executed for a crime he didn’t commit. He spent three years as the youngest person on Louisiana’s death row before being freed. Cousin doesn’t say he was wrongfully convicted — he says he was framed. […]
Democrats push more resilient, lower-carbon infrastructure at U.S. Senate climate hearing
The changing climate is hurting infrastructure and the national economy, members of a U.S. Senate panel and experts said Wednesday. Members of both parties on the U.S. Senate Budget Committee agreed at a Wednesday hearing on the need for more resilient infrastructure that could withstand the pressures of a changing climate. They also agreed speeding […]
FEMA disaster relief fund faces August shortfall as feds scramble to find cash
WASHINGTON — The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s disaster relief fund is on track to run out of money as soon as next month, though the agency’s administrator told Congress on Thursday that she’s working with the White House to find a solution. “Our current projections on the disaster relief fund is that we will go […]
The gun violence epidemic is ‘locking us back in our room’
NEW ORLEANS — Erin Brown recalls all too well the dreadful call he received from his mother in 2021, while in the thralls of the COVID-19 pandemic: His cousin — his “brother” — had been shot six times. Although it was not the first time gun violence had reached the then-17-year-old Brown’s social circle, that […]
LSU to fold on its controversial sports-betting deal with Caesar’s
LSU is ending its controversial, seven-figure agreement allowing Caesars Entertainment to advertise sports betting across the campus, according to university officials and a sports marketing company involved in the deal. The agreement, struck in 2021, was supposed to last several more years, said Lauren Capone of Playfly Sports, a marketing company that helped arrange the […]