Louisiana - Global pulse News
  • 10 Rules law is Louisiana guv’s most current effort to move the state further to the best

    10 Rules law is Louisiana guv’s most current effort to move the state further to the best

    BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana has actually long been dependably red. The Bayou State has actually chosen the Republican prospect in every governmental election considering that 2000, with citizens extremely supporting Donald Trump throughout the previous 2, and the GOP has actually held a bulk in the statehouse for several years.

    However policies in the state have actually diverted even further best under the management of Republican politician Gov. Jeff Landry, who has actually performed a sweeping conservative program in simply 6 months on the task. Today he signed the country’s very first law needing that the 10 Rules be published in every public class. He enacted a brand-new law categorizing abortion tablets as harmful illegal drugs. He has actually voiced assistance for an expense on his desk requiring a Texas-style migration crackdown that might permit police to detain and prison migrants who get in the U.S. unlawfully.

    And legislators who have actually valued Landry’s hard law-and-order position on concerns such as brand-new capital punishment techniques await his action on a first-of-its-kind costs enabling judges to purchase the surgical castration of rapists who take advantage of kids.

    The relocations have actually made international headings and strongly ingrained Louisiana in the conservative motion on virtually every problem stimulating the Republican base in 2024. Democrats are horrified at the message Landry is sending out however some conservatives in Louisiana see the relocations as a strong and effective action as he raises his nationwide profile.

    “From about 500 miles away, it definitely appears that he has actually worked really rapidly,” stated Matt Mackowiak, a Texas-based GOP strategist who has actually worked for 2 Congress members and a guv. “He has actually struck the ground running and the capacity is truly high.”

    ‘Suppressed Republican policy choices’

    When Landry went into workplace in January, he did so with Republicans having actually protected every statewide chosen position for the very first time in almost a years.

    With the assistance of the Legislature, he likewise supported among the nation’s strictest abortion restrictions and pressed anti-LGBTQ+ policies, consisting of Louisiana’s variation of a “Don’t State Gay” costs.

    While Landry hasn’t suggested whether he will sign the Democrat-authored castration costs into law, lots of Republicans and a number of Democrats supported it.

    GOP legislators, in turn, have actually typically applauded the previous state chief law officer and one-time congressman.

    “It definitely provides you hope that your efforts are going to be efficient when you’ve got a guv who you understand where he bases on things and likewise understand that there’s a likelihood he will sign them,” stated speaker professional tempore state Rep. Michael T. Johnson.

    Johnson, who was chosen to your home in 2019, explained Landry as simple to deal with, transparent and a leader who he thinks will “move the state forward.” He included that the session was “more efficient” since there were “clear and orderly objectives we were attempting to achieve.”

    “I believe what you saw in this most current legal session is bottled-up Republican policy choices,” stated Robert Hogan, a teacher and chair of Louisiana State University’s government department. “They opened the floodgates and it began putting out, with a great deal of them really effective.”

    Throughout the aisle, Democrats regularly decried Landry’s efforts and the rate at which costs were passing, in some cases with little feedback from the general public.

    The LGBTQ+ neighborhood, which for 8 years prior had an ally in the guv’s estate, has actually turned into one of Landry’s harshest critics.

    “It is absolutely a various environment here in the Legislature, particularly with Gov. Landry focusing on these really damaging costs, pressing them through really quick and making it really hard and unpleasant to be here,” stated SarahJane Guidry, executive director of the LGBTQ+ rights group Online forum for Equality, stated in an interview throughout the session.

    Louisiana’s current political shift was at times warded off by previous Gov. John Bel Edwards, who could not instantly run once again since of term limitations.

    Edwards, the only Democratic guv in the Deep South throughout his 2 terms, looked for over 8 years to guide the state towards more Democratic opportunities by broadening Medicaid protection, signing up with environment modification efforts and banning a few of the steps that Landry has actually considering that signed into law.

    Lots of citizens appeared all set for the modification Landry has actually brought, though. He won the election outright with 52% of the vote, wiping out the Democratic runner-up’s 26%.

    While not everybody desired Landry for the task, lots of concur he has actually followed through on project guarantees — whether they support the policies or not.

    “I’m not shocked one iota, this is totally what I anticipated when he ended up being guv,” stated Chris Dier, a high school instructor in New Orleans who has actually opposed a great deal of Landry’s efforts. “I believe a great deal of the discussions before he even ended up being guv were how do we react to specific pieces of legislation when they pass.”

    Considering a larger phase?

    In a time of Trump-era conservatives, some think Landry might follow in the steps of other prominent guvs — ending up being a nationwide figure or running for greater workplace. His passion to take into location first-of-its-kind legislation, determination to select and get in nationwide battles and propensity to court media protection echo techniques utilized by other political leaders who increase to the nationwide phase.

    Pearson Cross, a government teacher at the University of Louisiana, indicates Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as examples of where Landry might go.

    “I believe Jeff Landry is really comfy with that type of profile. I believe he seems like he is defending the state and representing his constituents who are normally conservative — and possibly pressing back versus federal government overreach,” Cross stated.

    Like Abbott, Landry was a state chief law officer for several years before he ended up being guv. He likewise, like DeSantis, hung around in the U.S. Legislature, though with a much shorter period.

    However Landry, whose workplace decreased an interview demand from The Associated Press, has actually offered little sign of where his future goals lie.

    He just recently signed up with Abbott and other Republican guvs at Eagle Pass, a Texas town that has actually ended up being the center of a turf war over migration enforcement, to go over the border crisis. He likewise headlined the Tennessee Republican politician Celebration’s yearly fundraising supper in Nashville last weekend.

    He likewise signed an expense that conceals from public records information about his schedule and/or those of his partner or kids on premises of security issues. While not uncommon, challengers argue the law will be utilized to conceal who Landry meets and where he takes a trip to.

    Chatter at the state Capitol is on the other hand swirling about whether Landry may be used a cabinet position if Trump wins the governmental election in the fall. Steven Cheung, a representative for Trump’s project group, stated there have not been any conversations about who would serve in the administration. However, that hasn’t stopped individuals from hypothesizing.

    “I believe he has that (nationwide acknowledgment) and as it assists our state I definitely am delighted, however I don’t desire it to lead to him leaving for a cabinet position,” Johnson stated. “Nevertheless, I believe Louisiana has a lot to use, and if he can be an ambassador on a nationwide level then I believe definitely that is favorable.”

  • Louisiana’s brand-new law needing the 10 Rules in class churns old political disputes

    Louisiana’s brand-new law needing the 10 Rules in class churns old political disputes

    BRAND-NEW ORLEANS (AP) — An expense signed into law today makes Louisiana the only state to need that the 10 Rules be shown in every class in public schools and colleges — and stirs the long-running dispute over the function of faith in federal government organizations.

    Under the brand-new law, all public K-12 class and state-funded universities will be needed to show a poster-sized screen of the 10 Rules in “big, quickly legible font style” next year.

    Civil liberties groups prepared suits to obstruct the law signed by Republican politician Gov. Jeff Landry, stating it would unconstitutionally breach securities versus government-imposed faith.

    Chris Dier, who was called the Louisiana Instructor of the Year in 2020, stated Thursday that he fretted the needed screen might send out a message that a “instructor, school, neighborhood and state chooses specific faiths over others” and might make some trainees “feel exceptionally separated.”

    State authorities are worrying the history of the 10 Rules, which the expense calls “fundamental files of our state and nationwide federal government.”

    “The 10 Rules are quite basic (don’t eliminate, take, cheat on your partner), however they likewise are very important to our nation’s structures,” Lawyer Gen. Liz Murrill, a Republican ally of Landry who will protect the law in court, stated in a social networks declaration.

    Comparable expenses needing the 10 Rules be shown in class have actually been proposed in other statehouses — consisting of Texas, Oklahoma and Utah.

    Previously 10 Rules debates

    In 1980, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a comparable Kentucky law breached the facility stipulation of the U.S. Constitution, which states Congress can “make no law appreciating a facility of faith.” The high court discovered that the law had no nonreligious function however rather served a clearly spiritual function.

    In its newest judgments on 10 Rules display screens, the Supreme Court kept in 2005 that such display screens in a set of Kentucky court houses breached the Constitution. At the very same time, the court maintained a 10 Rules marker on the premises of the Texas state Capitol in Austin. Those were 5-4 choices however the court’s makeup has actually altered, with a 6-3 conservative bulk now.

    The problem has actually roiled politics in other states from time to time.

    In Alabama, Roy Moore was eliminated as primary justice of the state Supreme Court in 2003 for disobeying a court order to eliminate a 10 Rules monolith from the court’s structure. After he was chosen to the post once again, Moore was suspended from the bench in 2016 after a judicial discipline panel ruled he had actually prompted probate judges to decline marital relationship licenses to same-sex couples. Moore challenged the allegation.

    Citizens authorized a change to the Alabama Constitution in 2018 stating schools and public structures can show the 10 Rules as long as it is carried out in a manner in which “abide by constitutional requirements,” such as being intermingled with historic files.

    Other religion-government battles

    Louisiana has actually had a popular function in the church-state legal battle before. In 1987, the Supreme Court overruled a 1981 Louisiana statute that needed direction on advancement to be accompanied by mentor on “development science.” The court discovered that the statute had no recognizable nonreligious function and the “pre-eminent function of the Louisiana Legislature was plainly to advance the spiritual perspective that a supernatural being developed mankind.”

    Mississippi has actually mandated the screen of “In God We Trust” in schools given that 2001. Louisiana passed a comparable required that ended up being law in 2015.

    The most recent presses to publish the 10 Rules follow a significant triumph for the spiritual right in 2022: The Supreme Court ruled that a high school football coach in the state of Washington who knelt and hoped on the field after video games was safeguarded by the Constitution.

    How the 10 Rules are seen

    Jews and Christians relate to the 10 Rules as having actually been provided by God offered to Moses, according to scriptural accounts, to Moses on Mount Sinai. Not every Christian custom utilizes the very same 10 Rules. The order differs as does the phrasing, depending upon which Bible translation is utilized. The 10 Rules in the signed Louisiana legislation are noted in an order typical amongst some Protestant and Orthodox customs.

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    Associated Press authors Sara Cline in Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Mark Sherman in Washington; Holly Meyer in Nashville, Tennessee; Emily Wagster Pettus in Jackson, Mississippi; and Peter Smith in Pittsburgh added to this report.

  • Louisiana United States Rep. Attic Graves will not look for reelection, pointing out a brand-new congressional map

    Louisiana United States Rep. Attic Graves will not look for reelection, pointing out a brand-new congressional map

    BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — U.S. Rep. Attic Graves, a Republican representing Louisiana, stated on Friday that he will not run for reelection after a brand-new congressional map dismantled his district, changing it into the state’s 2nd majority-Black district.

    Up previously, the congressman, among former-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s close allies, had actually stayed determined that he would run once again. However in a composed declaration on Friday, he discussed his modification of mind.

    “After much input from constituents, assessment with advocates, agreement from household, and assistance from the Almighty, it is clear that running for Congress this year does not make good sense,” stated Graves, of Baton Rouge.

    The legislator went on to state that a run in any “momentary district” would trigger “long-term damage to Louisiana’s excellent representation in Congress.”

    “This has actually been a remarkable experience leading to countless brand-new relationships and unequaled development for the location we represent,” he continued. “In this dissentious and politically-polarized environment, to get over 80 percent of the vote in the last election validates that we were getting it mainly right. Thank you for the chance to serve.”

    Tomb’ exit clears the method for an open race in the brand-new sixth District, where Democratic state Sen. Cleo Fields, of Baton Rouge, has actually currently stated his candidateship, and essentially ensures existing 5th District Republican politician Congresswoman Julia Letlow, of Start, a simple course to reelection.

  • Judge obstructs Biden’s Title IX guideline in 4 states, dealing a blow to defenses for LGBTQ+ trainees

    Judge obstructs Biden’s Title IX guideline in 4 states, dealing a blow to defenses for LGBTQ+ trainees

    WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration’s brand-new Title IX guideline broadening defenses for LGBTQ+ trainees has actually been briefly obstructed in 4 states after a federal judge in Louisiana discovered that it exceeded the Education Department’s authority.

    In an initial injunction approved Thursday, U.S. District Judge Terry A. Doughty called the brand-new guideline an “abuse of power” and a “hazard to democracy.” His order obstructs the guideline in Louisiana, which submitted an obstacle to the guideline in April, and in Mississippi, Montana and Idaho, which signed up with the match.

    The Education Department did not instantly react to the order.

    The Louisiana case is amongst a minimum of 7 backed by more than 20 Republican-led states combating Biden’s guideline. The guideline, set to take hold in August, broadens Title IX civil liberties defenses to LGBTQ+ trainees, broadens the meaning of unwanted sexual advances at schools and colleges, and includes safeguards for victims.

    Doughty, who was selected by previous President Donald Trump, is the very first judge to obstruct the guideline. It deals a significant blow to the brand-new defenses, which were applauded by civil liberties supporters however drew reaction from challengers who state they weaken the spirit of Title IX, a 1972 law disallowing sex discrimination in education.

    Louisiana is amongst a number of Republican states with laws needing individuals to utilize restrooms and locker spaces based upon their sex designated at birth, limiting transgender trainees from utilizing centers that line up with their gender identity. President Joe Biden’s guideline clashes with those laws and declared to supersede them.

    The Louisiana claim argued that the brand-new guideline would require schools throughout the 4 state to pay countless dollars to upgrade their centers. In his choice, the judge called it an “intrusion of state sovereignty” and concluded that the states were most likely to prosper on the benefits of the case.

    His order states the guideline most likely breaks complimentary speech laws by needing schools to utilize pronouns asked for by trainees. It likewise concerns whether the Biden administration has legal authority to broaden Title IX to LGBTQ+ trainees.

    “The Court discovers that the term ‘sex discrimination’ just consisted of discrimination versus biological males and women at the time of enactment,” Doughty composed in his order.

    The judge revealed issue that the guideline might need schools to permit transgender females and women to contend on female sports groups. A number of Republican states have laws prohibiting transgender women from completing on women groups.

    The Biden administration has actually proposed a different guideline that would prohibit such blanket restrictions, however it stated the recently settled guideline does not use to sports. Still, Doughty stated it might be analyzed to use to sports.

    “The Last Guideline uses to sex discrimination in any instructional ‘program’ or ‘activity’ getting Federal monetary support,” he composed. “The terms ‘program’ or ‘activity’ are not specified however might probably consist of sports groups for recipient schools.”

    Judges in a minimum of 6 other cases are weighing whether to put a comparable hang on Biden’s guideline. The Defense of Flexibility Institute, a right-leaning not-for-profit that backed the Louisiana claim, praised Doughty’s order.

    “We are positive that other courts and states will quickly follow,” stated Bob Eitel, president of the not-for-profit and a Trump administration education authorities.

    Biden provided the brand-new guideline after taking apart another one developed by Trump’s education secretary, Betsy DeVos. That guideline narrowed the meaning of unwanted sexual advances and included defenses for trainees implicated of sexual misbehavior.

    On the social networks platform X on Thursday, DeVos called the Louisiana choice a success, stating Biden’s “anti-woman radical reword of Title IX is not simply insane however it’s likewise prohibited.”

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    The Associated Press’ education protection gets financial backing from numerous personal structures. AP is entirely accountable for all material. Discover AP’s requirements for dealing with philanthropies, a list of fans and moneyed protection locations at AP.org.

  • Louisiana GOP officials ask U.S. Supreme Court to intervene in fight over congressional map

    Louisiana GOP officials ask U.S. Supreme Court to intervene in fight over congressional map

    Washington — Republican officials in Louisiana asked the Supreme Court on Friday to step into a long-running dispute over the state’s congressional districts after a panel of lower court judges said upcoming elections can’t be held under a recently adopted map that included a second majority-Black district.

    Top lawyers for the state requested the justices provide emergency relief and halt the ruling issued by the three-judge panel late last month, which found the redistricting plan approved by Louisiana’s GOP-led legislature in January was an unconstitutional racial gerrymander.

    That map, which set the lines for the state’s six congressional districts was crafted after a federal district court judge in a separate case ordered the creation of a second majority-Black district to comply with Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. A redistricting plan drawn by state lawmakers in 2022 following the last Census consisted of five majority-White congressional districts and one majority-Black district, though roughly one-third of the state’s population is Black. The judge, U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick, said in her June 2022 decision that map likely violated the landmark voting law, and she gave state lawmakers the opportunity to come up with a new map that included an additional majority-Black congressional district.

    But the new plan adopted by state lawmakers earlier this year swiftly drew a legal challenge from a group of 12 voters, who described themselves as “non-African-American” and claimed the state drew the district boundaries predominantly based on race. The voters said the state in doing so, the state “engaged in explicit, racial segregation of voters.”

    A divided three-judge district court panel agreed, and in a 2-1 decision blocked the latest GOP-drawn congressional map from being used in any election after finding it to be an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. The three-judge panel set a June 4 deadline for a new map to be imposed.

    A group of Black voters and civil rights groups asked the Supreme Court earlier this week to intervene, and Louisiana officials followed with their request Friday. Both groups have asked the justices to halt the panel’s injunction and remedial proceedings by May 15. 

    In their 43-page filing with the Supreme Court, GOP state lawyers lamented that Louisiana is left without district lines just five days before the secretary of state needs to begin implementing a congressional map for the 2024 elections.

    “Louisiana’s impossible situation in this redistricting cycle would be comical if it were not so serious,” they said.

    The GOP officials told the justices that the congressional map with two majority-Black districts passed by the legislature and signed by Gov. Jeff Landry, a Republican, not only took into account the lower courts’ instructions for Voting Rights Act compliance, but also was designed to achieve several political goals, namely protecting incumbent Speaker Mike Johnson, Majority Leader Steve Scalise and GOP Rep. Julia Letlow.

    They said the upcoming elections in Louisiana risk being marred by confusion and chaos amid competing court orders that pit the earlier Voting Rights Act rulings, which required the adoption of a second majority-Black district, against the panel’s April decision, which found adopting a map with a second majority-Black district violated the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause.

    “This absurd situation is an affront to Louisiana, its voters, and democracy itself. The madness must end,” the Louisiana officials wrote.

    They warned that if the Supreme Court leaves the district court’s injunction in force, the state’s 2024 congressional elections “will be in disarray.” The Republicans said if the secretary of state does not have a congressional redistricting plan by Wednesday, “the only map that that could be feasibly implemented after May 15 (and still avoid election chaos) is the H.B. 1 map, which remains programmed in the State’s voter-registration system.” Those district lines, which were adopted in 2022, are the ones that Dick ruled likely violated the Voting Rights Act.

    Beyond their request for emergency relief, Louisiana Republicans urged the Supreme Court to take up the case in its next term, which begins in October.

    “Time is of the essence in ensuring that Louisiana’s 2026 elections are not hampered by redistricting-related litigation,” they said.

    If the Supreme Court agrees to consider the merits of the dispute, it could lead to a significant decision involving Section 2 of the Voting Rights act and how race is used during the redistricting process. Additionally, an order allowing Louisiana to use the latest redrawn map could have ramifications for the November congressional elections, when control of the House is at stake.

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  • South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem meets with Jeff Landry’s cabinet in Baton Rouge

    South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem meets with Jeff Landry’s cabinet in Baton Rouge

    South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem speaks to guests at the 2023 NRA-ILA Leadership Forum on April 13, 2023, in Indianapolis, Indiana. The forum is part of the National Rifle Association’s Annual Meetings & Exhibits. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

    BATON ROUGE, Louisiana — South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, who’s in the midst of a controversy over admitting to killing her dog and goat, was in Louisiana to meet with Gov. Jeff Landry’s cabinet Thursday at the state Capitol, multiple attendees at the meeting confirmed to the Louisiana Illuminator.

    Noem has been in consideration to be former President Donald Trump’s running mate in this fall’s election, but some have questioned her status since her recent revelation that she shot and killed her dog Cricket and a billy goat. She spoke to Landry’s cabinet about lessons she has learned during her time as governor, according to sources inside the meeting.

    Cricket’s untimely end, which Noem details in her new book, did not come up in the meeting, attendees said.

    Landry was not in attendance at the meeting, which was just the second cabinet meeting held this term. Kate Kelly, a spokesperson for Landry, did not respond to requests for comment for this story.

    Noem is a close personal friend of Landry’s. She has been among the participants in his annual alligator hunt fundraiser, an event that has also drawn Donald Trump Jr. and other national conservative figures.

    Landry and Noem share other political connections as well.

    Landry spent thousands to receive political advice from Corey Lewandowski, a former Trump adviser, for his governor’s campaign. Lewandowski and Noem are close and have been subjected to allegations that they’re having an affair, although a spokesperson for Noem has denied the allegation.

    Landry’s secretary for the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, Madison Sheahan, also worked “directly and indirectly” for Noem and was executive director of the Republican Party in South Dakota.

    Noem is slated to make an appearance this weekend at a Palm Beach event with Trump Sr. and other potential vice presidential picks, Politico reports.

    This story was originally published by the Louisiana Illuminator. Like South Dakota Searchlight, it’s part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Louisiana Illuminator maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Greg LaRose for questions: info@lailluminator.com. Follow Louisiana Illuminator on Facebook and Twitter.

    The post South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem meets with Jeff Landry’s cabinet in Baton Rouge appeared first on South Dakota Searchlight.



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  • Court blocks Louisiana’s congressional map with a second majority-Black district

    Court blocks Louisiana’s congressional map with a second majority-Black district

    A federal court on Tuesday blocked Louisiana from using a congressional map signed into law this year that had been redrawn to include a second majority-Black district.

    In a 2-1 vote, the three-judge panel of the U.S. District Court in Monroe, Louisiana, found that Senate Bill 8, which provided for the redistricting of congressional districts in the state, violated a clause in the 14th Amendment that ensures equal protection under the Constitution.

    The case is likely to end up before the Supreme Court in another test of the Voting Rights Act.

    “Having considered the testimony and evidence at trial, the arguments of counsel, and the applicable law, we conclude that District 6 of SB8 violates the Equal Protection Clause,” District Judges Robert R. Summerhays and David C. Joseph, both appointees of former President Donald Trump, wrote in the court’s opinion.

    The judges said the state was not to use the map “in any future elections.”

    A hearing was set for May 6 to discuss next steps.

    In a statement, Paul Hurd, an attorney for the voters opposing the map, expressed gratitude “that the Court ruled in favor of the twelve courageous Plaintiffs who challenged the new districting plan.”

    In their lawsuit challenging the redistricting map, the plaintiffs argued that “the State engaged in textbook racial gerrymandering” and that it violated civil rights protections under the 14th and 15th amendments when it drew a second majority-Black district to comply with an earlier court order.

    The Louisiana secretary of state’s office has set May 15 as the deadline for the state’s congressional map to be finalized for use in this year’s elections.

    It declined to comment on Tuesday’s ruling.

    The map was redrawn, and Gov. Jeff Landry, a Republican, signed it into law in January after a federal court ruled in 2022 that the Legislature had illegally disenfranchised Black voters in its earlier redistricting plan.

    Although Louisiana is nearly one-third Black, five of its six congressional districts are predominantly white.

    The new map would reduce the Black voting-age population in Democratic Rep. Troy Carter’s district to 51%, while drawing a new 6th Congressional District as a narrow sliver through the heart of the state, from Shreveport to Baton Rouge. The Black voting-age population of that district would be 53%.

    Carter blasted Tuesday’s ruling on X and urged the Supreme Court to “correct this immediately.”

    In a dissenting opinion, Judge Carl E. Stewart pointed to the new map’s effort to address objections to the previous one raised under the Voting Rights Act.

    “I worry that the panel majority’s decision fails to properly assess the history that led to S.B. 8 and, consequently, dooms us to repeat this cycle,” wrote Stewart, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton.

    He added that the new map was “narrowly tailored to further the State’s compelling interests” in adhering to the Voting Rights Act’s protections against discriminatory voting practices and procedures.

    The outcome of the fight over Louisiana’s map could have play a significant role in November, when Republicans will be defending their narrow majority in the House.

    This article was originally published on NBCNews.com



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  • US judges have rejected a map that would have given Louisiana a new majority-Black House district

    US judges have rejected a map that would have given Louisiana a new majority-Black House district

    NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A new congressional district map giving Louisiana a second majority-Black House district was rejected Tuesday by a panel of three federal judges, fueling new uncertainty about district boundaries as the state prepares for fall congressional elections.

    The 2-1 ruling forbids the use of a map drawn up in January by the Legislature after a different federal judge blocked a map from 2022. The earlier map maintained a single Black-majority district and five mostly white districts, in a state with a population that is about one-third Black.

    An appeal of Tuesday’s ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court is likely. Meanwhile, the ruling means continued uncertainty over what the November election map will look like. State election officials have said they need to know the district boundaries by May 15, and the sign-up period for the fall elections in Louisiana is in mid-July.

    The new map was challenged by 12 self-described non-African American voters, whose lawsuit said the districts amounted to unconstitutional racial gerrymandering that discriminated against white voters while pulling together disparate areas of the state into one district.

    Supporters of the new map said political considerations, not race, played a major role in the development of the new map, which slashes diagonally across the state, linking Black populations in the northwest, central and southeast regions. And they said it ensures the state’s compliance with the federal Voting Rights Act.

    The map maintains safe districts for five incumbents — one Black Democrat and four white Republicans, including House Speaker Mike Johnson and Majority Leader Steve Scalise.

    But Rep. Garret Graves, a white Republican representing the Baton Rouge area, sees his district shift from majority-white and Republican to majority-Black and Democratic.

    Graves supported a rival of Republican Gov. Jeff Landry in last year’s governor’s race. Supporters of the new plan say that bolsters the argument that the new map was drawn with politics, rather than race, as a driving factor.

    The ruling was the latest development in a drawn-out legal battle over redistricting, which happens every 10 years to account for population shifts reflected in census data.

    Louisiana’s Republican-dominated Legislature drew a new map in 2022 that was favorable to all six current incumbents. Then-Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, vetoed the map, but the majority-Republican Legislature overrode him, leading to a court challenge.

    In June 2022, Baton Rouge-based U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick issued an injunction against the map, saying challengers would likely win their claim that it violated the Voting Rights Act. As the case was appealed, the U.S. Supreme Court issued an unexpected ruling that favored Black voters in a congressional redistricting case in Alabama.

    Dick sided with challengers who said the 2022 map packed a significant number of voters in one district — District 2 which stretches from New Orleans to the Baton Rouge area — while “cracking” the remaining Black population by apportioning it to other mostly white districts.

    Last November, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals gave the state a January deadline for drawing a new congressional district. Landry, who was the state’s attorney general when he was elected to succeed the term-limited Edwards, called a special session to redraw the map, saying the Legislature should do it rather than a federal judge.

    The new map does not resemble sample maps that supporters of a new majority-Black district suggested earlier, which would have created a new district largely covering the northeastern part of the state.

    The opponents of the latest map filed their lawsuit in the federal court system’s Western District of Louisiana, which is dominated by Republican-appointed judges.

    Those assembled to hear the case filed in Shreveport were U.S. District Judges David Joseph and Robert Summerhays, both of whom were nominated by former President Donald Trump, and Judge Carl Stewart of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, nominated by former Democratic President Bill Clinton. Dick was nominated to the federal bench by former President Barack Obama. Joseph and Summerhays voted to reject the new map. Stewart dissented.

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  • Louisiana sues Biden over Title IX rules that protect LGBTQ students from discrimination

    Louisiana sues Biden over Title IX rules that protect LGBTQ students from discrimination

    Louisiana is suing President Joe Biden to block new U.S. Department of Education rules issued that include protections for LGBTQ students by clarifying that Title IX forbids discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

    Republican Attorney General Liz Murrill was joined by GOP Gov. Jeff Landry, state Department of Education Superintendent Cade Brumley and others during a press conference in the state Captiol announcing the lawsuit filed Monday in Louisiana’s U.S. Western District Court in Monroe.

    Opponents of the new Title IX rules believe they could supplant state laws like bathroom bans and other policies increasingly being enacted in Republican-led states like Louisiana.

    Murrill said the new rules are attempting to “remake American societal norms” in bathrooms and lockerrooms.

    She said the new rules also transform traditional Title IX protections for “biological women” to compete in sports. “It estroys decades of advancements for women and girls,” Murrill said, calling the rules “an affront to the dignity of families, and it’s not legal.”

    Landry said the rules show the Biden administration “has lost its moral compass.”

    “We’re not going to pretend there is some other kind of sexual category other than the two the great almighty has set forth,” Landry said.

    Louisiana is joined in the lawsuit by attorneys general in Idaho, Mississippi and Montana.

    Marchers walk through the French Quarter in New Orleans for Transgender Day of Visibility on Friday, March 31, 2023.

    Marchers walk through the French Quarter in New Orleans for Transgender Day of Visibility on Friday, March 31, 2023.

    A separate rule that could prohibit schools from banning transgender athletes from competing on teams in accordance with their gender identity has not been finalized but is expected to be soon. Louisiana passed a law in 2022 that bans transgender athletes from competing on girls and women’s sports teams.

    Last week Brumley sent a letter to state school systems advising leaders to ignore the new Title IX rules.

    “These new rules have been in development for nearly two years, and I have previously submitted comments in staunch opposition as it alters the long-standing definition that has created fairness and equal access to opportunity for women and men,” Brumley wrote on April 22. “At this time, my opposition to these new Title IX rules remains unchanged. The Title IX rule changes recklessly endanger students and seek to dismantle equal opportunities for females.”

    Brumley reiterated his position, telling school systems: “Do not comply.”

    “This is a line-in-the-sand issue,” Brumley said. “This is a bridge too far.”

    U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty has been assigned the case.

    Doughty, who was nominated by former President Donald Trump in 2017 and confirmed in 2018, has a history of issuing high-profile rulings against the Biden administration, some of which have advanced to the U.S. Supreme Court.

    The Supreme Court is considering a case now in which Doughty ruled that the Biden administration unconstitutionally suppressed free speech by colluding with social media platforms during the COVID pandemic.

    He previously overturned two COVID vaccine mandates for federal healthcare and Head Start workers and a ban on oil and gas drilling.

    More: Louisiana case acusing Biden of illegal social media censorship takes Supreme Court stage

    Greg Hilburn covers state politics for the USA TODAY Network of Louisiana. Follow him on Twitter @GregHilburn1

    This article originally appeared on Shreveport Times: Louisiana sues Biden over Title IX rules that protect LGBTQ students

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  • Louisiana man sentenced to 50 years in prison, physical castration for raping teen

    Louisiana man sentenced to 50 years in prison, physical castration for raping teen

    Preview: Christine Blasey Ford: I was “naïve” about Kavanaugh testimony


    Christine Blasey Ford: “I was naïve” about consequences of Brett Kavanaugh testimony

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    A Louisiana man has been sentenced to decades in prison and physical castration after pleading guilty to raping a teenager, according to a news release from the region’s district attorney. 

    Glenn Sullivan Sr., 54, pled guilty to four counts of second-degree rape on April 17. Authorities began investigating Sullivan in July 2022, when a young woman told the Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Office that Sullivan had assaulted her multiple times when she was 14. The assaults resulted in pregnancy, and a DNA test confirmed that Sullivan was the father of the child, the district attorney’s office said. Sullivan had also groomed the victim and threatened her and her family to prevent her from coming forward. 

    “So many of these types of cases go unreported because of fear. The strength it must have taken for this young woman to tell the truth in the face of threats and adversity is truly incredible,” Judicial District Attorney Scott M. Perrilloux said in the news release. 

    A 2008 Louisiana law says that men convicted of certain rape offenses may be sentenced to chemical castration. They can also elect to be physically castrated. Perrilloux said that Sullivan’s plea requires he be physically castrated. The process will be carried out by the state’s Department of Corrections, according to the law, but cannot be conducted more than a week before a person’s prison sentence ends. This means Sullivan wouldn’t be castrated until a week before the end of his 50-year sentence — when he would be more than 100 years old. 

    “Sex crimes against juveniles are the most malicious crimes we prosecute,” Assistant District Attorney Brad J. Cascio, who prosecuted the case, said in the release. “I intend on using every tool the legislature is willing to give us, including physical castration, to seek justice for the children in our community.” 

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  • A Unique Book Club Meets at One of the Nation’s Largest Jails

    A Unique Book Club Meets at One of the Nation’s Largest Jails

    CHICAGO (AP) — For college senior Nana Ampofo, an unconventional book club inside one of the nation’s largest jails has transformed her career ambitions.

    Each week, the 22-year-old drives a van of her DePaul University peers to Cook County Jail to discuss books with inmates and recently, the well-known activist Sister Helen Prejean. Ampofo comes prepared with thought-provoking questions to launch the conversations at the Chicago jail about the most recent books they’ve been reading together.

    One club rule is clear: Discussions about personal lives are encouraged, but no questions are permitted about why other members are in jail.

    “That’s part of dehumanizing people. You want people to tell you their own story and have their own autonomy,” Ampofo said. “When you go in with an open mind, you see how similar people are to you.”

    The student-led volunteer effort started years ago as an offshoot of a DePaul program offering college credit classes at the jail on the city’s southwest side for students and detainees. The book club, with a new cohort each academic quarter, tackles books that resonate personally with group members who are nearly all Black or Latino.

    Associated Press journalists were allowed into the jail Monday to observe the current club’s final meeting to discuss Prejean’s book “Dead Man Walking,” where the Louisiana anti-death penalty activist made a special appearance. The book, which was also adapted into a movie and an opera, is about her experiences as a spiritual adviser to a pair of men on death row in the 1980s.

    Photos You Should See – April 2024

    Sitting in a circle inside a window-filled jail chapel, 10 inmates in tan jail-issued uniforms sat among four college students and Prejean, who visits the Catholic university in Chicago each year.

    Ampofo, who advocated for Prejean’s visit, cried when she talked about how important the group members and their discussions are to her. Laughter erupted when Prejean told a vulgar joke involving Louisiana bayou folk characters. And there were fierce nods when Steven Hayer, a detainee, discussed why many inmates return to jail.

    “Our society doesn’t invest in solutions,” he said. “And when they get out, they will go back to what they know.”

    Book club members seized the chance to ask Prejean questions, including differences between the book and movie and what it’s like to watch people die.

    The 85-year-old nun has been present for seven executions. Her archival papers are housed at DePaul, including script notes for the 1995 movie starring Susan Sarandon.

    After witnessing her first execution, Prejean said she threw up, but decided that being with people in their final moments was a privilege.

    “When you’ve been a witness to something then that fire begins to burn in your heart for justice that we’ve got to change this,” she said.

    As a white woman who grew up in the South, Prejean said her prison work opened her eyes about racism.

    Most of the detained members of the book club are Black, mirroring demographics of the jail, which houses nearly 5,000 detainees. Roughly 70% of inmates are involved in some type of educational programming like the book club, according to Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart.

    But having college student participation sets the book club apart from other activities.

    “When you all of a sudden have students from the outside, sitting next to you, you start thinking of yourself different,” said Dart. “It changes mentalities.”

    Detainees are invited to participate based on their interests, he said. Their behavior on the inside determines their ability to join, not what they are serving time for, he added. Health issues are also taken into consideration.

    The jail’s wait list to get into the club has been up to 40 people.

    Jarvis Wright, who has been detained at Cook County for two years, said he’s a reader but had never been in a book club before. The 30-year-old reads at night when it’s quiet at the jail. The other book club picks included “The Color of Law,” which delves into housing segregation.

    “Even though we’re sitting in here incarcerated doing time, awaiting trial for our cases, this gives us something positive to look forward to,” Wright said. “We’re not in here just wasting time.”

    DePaul has offered college classes through a national program called the Inside-Out Prison Exchange since 2012. Classes are held at both the Cook County Jail and the Stateville Correctional Center, a maximum security men’s prison about 40 miles (64 kilometers) from Chicago.

    During book club, security guards are present, but no one is shackled.

    Helen Damon-Moore, who oversees the jail education programs at DePaul, says there has never been a security issue.

    “They are all equal when they’re inside,” Damon-Moore said.

    Stanley Allen, a 36-year-old detainee, said he was drawn to the club because it was linked to a college. He hopes to take classes for credit in the future. For him, the most surprising part of the club was meeting the college students and Prejean.

    “There’s really good people out there,” he said.

    Other book club members say the experience has brought them close.

    “I feel like I’m talking to a bunch of my brothers,” Seven Clark, a DePaul sophomore from Chicago, told the group. “They way you talk is so familiar. It feels like home.”

    Ampofo will return to the jail by week’s end when a new club focusing on Black women’s writing begins. It’s a topic that resonates with her as the American-born daughter of a Ghanian immigrant mom.

    The first to graduate high school in her family, Ampofo is planning on graduate school to further pursue museum studies. She dreams of improving access to museums for incarcerated people and their families.

    “I want to take care of people,” she said. “And I found the people I want to take care of.”

    Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • Proposal would require companies to sign pro-gun vows in gov’t contracts

    Proposal would require companies to sign pro-gun vows in gov’t contracts

    A gun rack with assault rifles is displayed at a weapons retailer. (Getty Images)

    Louisiana lawmakers are considering a proposal to prohibit companies from winning government contracts if they refuse to do business with firearm companies or pro-gun groups. 

    Senate Bill 234, sponsored by Sen. Blake Miguez, R-New Iberia, was voluntarily deferred Monday before the Senate Finance Committee after members chose to defer all of Monday’s bills to consider them at a later date. 

    Despite not holding a vote, the committee still heard debate on the measure. It would add restrictions to Louisiana’s public bid law to prohibit any state or local government from contracting with any company unless the contract contains a written verification that the company will not “discriminate” against any “firearm entity” or firearm trade association. 

    “Citizens should not be compelled by their government to fund gun control,” Miguez said.  

    The proposal defines “firearm entity” as any business that manufactures, distributes, supplies or sells guns, gun accessories, ammunition or shooter training, and it considers a “firearm trade association” as virtually any pro-gun group. It qualifies discrimination as the act of refusing to do business based solely on the entity’s status as a firearm entity or trade association. 

    Testifying in support of the bill, the National Shooting Sport Foundation’s Darren LaSorte told the committee large corporations that provide essential services “are trying to starve us of essential services and ultimately destroy us.”

    In the wake of a mass shooting at a Florida high school in 2018, several large corporations — including Citigroup, Bank of America and Walmart — adopted policies to limit their business with gun retailers that don’t adopt simple measures such as performing background checks or prohibiting gun sales to people under 21.

    The Louisiana State Bond Commission has previously engaged in so-called ESG (environmental, social and governance) profiling to do business only with banks that share their conservative ideology. Miguez said the commission adopted a similar rule requiring contracts to include a gun-friendly vow. 

    Critics of the rule warned it could limit competition and cost the state money, but Miguez said those fears turned out to be unfounded as the state actually ended up saving money. 

    Joe Gendron, a lobbyist for the Louisiana Bankers Association, told the committee his organization is concerned with how the measure would be enforced. Miguez has proposed an amendment that would authorize the state attorney general or any local district attorney to void any contracts deemed to be in violation and sue the violating companies for fraud, breach of contract or on any other legal grounds.  

    “We do have some concerns about that — putting one person … just to be able to unilaterally make that decision and actually void a contract,” Gendron said. “It’s one thing to not enter a contract. It’s one thing to not renew a contract, but to have one person that can just say, ‘This is null and void by my reading,’ we are concerned about.”

    Miguez said his bill would protect Second Amendment rights and spark economic development, claiming it would advertise Louisiana as a pro-gun state and convince large gun manufacturers and other pro-gun businesses to relocate here. 

    Sen. Katrina Jackson Andrews, D-Monroe, pointed out that Louisiana is already one of the biggest pro-gun states in the nation and wanted to know if any gun companies have set up shop here because of that culture. 

    Neither Miguez nor LaSorte could say offhand how many gun manufacturers currently exist in Louisiana. 

    Miguez’s bill would apply only to contracts of at least $100,000 and would not apply if a government entity doesn’t receive bids from any companies that have signed the pro-gun vow.

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    The post Proposal would require companies to sign pro-gun vows in gov’t contracts appeared first on Louisiana Illuminator.

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  • Stray bullet that hit jogger traced to man doing target shooting, Louisiana cops say

    Stray bullet that hit jogger traced to man doing target shooting, Louisiana cops say

    Jogging through a Louisiana neighborhood nearly got a teenager killed when he crossed paths with a man target shooting from atop a levee, according to investigators.

    It happened Saturday, April 20, in Luling, about a 25-mile drive west from New Orleans.

    “A 50-year-old male was target shooting on the levee when a 17-year-old male that was jogging ran into the path of fire and was shot,” the St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.

    “The 17-year-old suffered from gunshot wounds and was transported to the hospital.”

    The identity of the victim and his condition have not been released.

    Investigators say the man accused of shooting the teen was found and is in custody. Details of any charges have not been released.

    Levees are embankments built to hold back water and can provide an elevated view of the surrounding area.

    The levee where the suspect was standing is near the 500 block of Cypress Street, which is lined with single-family homes, maps show. The street is bordered by Bayou Lafourche on the north and a series of canals on the south.

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  • Louisiana’s flagship university lets oil firms influence research – for a price

    Louisiana’s flagship university lets oil firms influence research – for a price

    The director of LSU’s Institute for Energy Innovation said being able to work with oil and gas companies is ‘really a key to advancing energy innovation’.Composite: The Guardian/Getty Images/Alamy

    For $5m, Louisiana’s flagship university will let an oil company weigh in on faculty research activities. Or, for $100,000, a corporation can participate in a research study, with “robust” reviewing powers and access to all resulting intellectual property.

    Those are the conditions outlined in a boilerplate document that Louisiana State University’s fundraising arm circulated to oil majors and chemical companies affiliated with the Louisiana Chemical Association, an industry lobbying group, according to emails disclosed in response to a public records request by the Lens.

    Related: How to spot five of the fossil fuel industry’s biggest disinformation tactics

    Records show that after Shell donated $25m in 2022 to LSU to create the Institute for Energy Innovation, the university gave the fossil fuel corporation license to influence research and coursework for the university’s new concentration in carbon capture, use and storage.

    Afterward, LSU’s fundraising entity, the LSU Foundation, used this partnership as a model to shop around to members of the Louisiana Chemical Association, such as ExxonMobil, Air Products and CF Industries, which have proposed carbon capture projects in Louisiana.

    For $2m, Exxon became the institute’s first “strategic partner-level donor”, a position that came with robust review of academic study output and with the ability to focus research activities. Another eight companies have discussed similar deals with LSU, according to a partnership update that LSU sent to Shell last summer.

    Some students, academics and experts said such relationships raise questions about academic freedom and public trust.

    Asked to comment, the Institute for Energy Innovation’s director, Brad Ives, defended the partnerships, as did the oil majors. Two more companies have since entered into partnerships with the Institute for Energy Innovation, said Ives. But Shell is the only company to have donated at the level that gave the company a seat on the advisory board that chooses the institute’s research. The head of the Louisiana Chemical Association and the Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association also sit on the advisory board, which can vote to stop a research project from moving forward.

    Ives said being able to work with oil and gas companies is “really a key to advancing energy innovation”.

    A spokesperson for Shell said: “We’re proud to partner with LSU to contribute to the growing compendium of peer-reviewed climate science and advance the effort to identify multiple pathways that can lead to more energy with fewer emissions.”

    An ExxonMobil spokesperson said: “Our collaboration with LSU and the Institute for Energy Innovation includes an allocation for research in carbon capture utilization and storage, as well as advanced recycling studies.”

    LSU has long had a close-relationship with oil majors, the names of which hang from buildings and equipment at the university. Nearly 40% of LSU funding comes from the state, which received a good chunk of its revenue from oil and gas activities until the 1980s. In recent years, oil and gas revenue has made up less than 10% of the state budget.

    But the new, highly visible partnership with Shell took the closeness a step further, promising corporations voting power over the Institute for Energy Innovation’s research activities in return for their investment.

    “I have a hard time seeing a faculty member engaged in legitimate research being eager for an oil company or representative of a chemical company to vote on his or her research agenda,” said Robert Mann, political commentator and former LSU journalism professor. “That is an egregious violation of academic freedom.

    “You don’t expect to see it written down like that,” Mann said, after the Lens asked him to review the boilerplate document that outlines what companies can expect in return for their donations to LSU’s Institute for Energy Innovation. It is not appropriate, Mann said, for faculty research to be driven by the decisions of the dean of a university, let alone an outside industry representative. “If you’re a faculty member in that unit you should know that the university is fine with auctioning off your academic freedom,” he said. “That’s what they’re doing.”

    Ives of LSU said its Institute for Energy Innovation is no different to similar institutes across the US, including the Texas Bureau of Economic Geology, which performs research supported by corporate donors. “I think researchers saying that somehow having corporate funding for research damages the integrity of that research is a little far-fetched,” Ives said.

    Related: World’s largest oil companies ‘way off track’ on emissions goals, report finds

    Research performed at the institute is subject to the faculty’s individual ethics training and subject to peer-review, he said. “A donor that provided money that goes to the institute isn’t going to be able to influence the outcome of that research in any way.”

    Asked about the relationship with the institute and industry, Karsten Thompson, the interim dean of the College of Engineering at LSU said: “To me, it’s not a conflict at all. It’s a partnership because they’re the ones that are going to make the largest initial impacts on reducing CO2 emissions.”

    Some observers, noting that fossil fuel companies have previously shown a vested interest in obscuring scientific conclusions, question the reliability of academic studies sponsored by fossil fuel companies. Exxon, for example, denied the risk of human-caused climate change for decades, noted Jane Patton, an LSU alumna and the US fossil economy campaign manager for the Center for International Environmental Law.

    After the Lens asked her to review LSU communication on the matter, Patton said she suspected that fossil fuel companies have had a say in what does and doesn’t get studied in relation to risky endeavors, such as carbon capture, which involves chemically stripping carbon dioxide from industrial emissions and piping it underground. For her, the LSU documents basically proved her fear. “This is the first time I’ve seen actual evidence of it,” Patton said. “This is a gross misuse of the public trust.”

    To Patton, the perceived blurring of academic objectivity could not come at a worse time in Louisiana, as the climate crisis makes the state less habitable and housing more expensive. “It’s just disheartening,” she said. “To find that the state’s flagship institution is allowing industry to determine the research agenda. No wonder it’s so hard to find peer-reviewed research about how bad this is.”

    Records show that Shell helped to tailor what LSU students would learn in the six courses offered under the institute’s carbon capture, use and storage (CCUS) concentration that debuted a couple years ago. The LSU alumnus Lee Stockwell, Shell’s general manager of CCUS, sat on the search committee for the Energy Institute executive director, served on the petroleum engineering advisory board, and was very involved in shaping the carbon capture curriculum.

    Stockwell directed questions about Shell’s partnership with the university to LSU.

    Stockwell was not the only oil representative to help design the curriculum. BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil also had representatives on the ad hoc advisory committee that designed carbon capture coursework within the petroleum engineering department, according to a July 2022 email from Thompson. At least one cohort of students took two elective courses at LSU designed by the oil majors and another 10 students were expected to take the full concentration beginning in 2022.

    LSU is not alone in this practice, Thompson said. At most engineering departments in the country, an active Industrial Advisory Committee (IAC) weighs in on curricula, so that degrees evolve as technology changes, helping students land internships and jobs.

    LSU faculty has not been similarly engaged with renewable energy companies, because oil and gas companies have the resources to tackle the climate crisis now – and are not reliant on future technology, Thompson said. “Renewable energy is much more abstract,” he said. “So, I think that’s the difference. It’s not that we don’t care as much.”

    Related: ‘A Trojan horse of legitimacy’: Shell launches a ‘climate tech’ startup advertising jobs in oil and gas

    Fossil fuel companies have been finding their way into classrooms for decades, in part to help the industry retain a positive public image in the face of a heating planet.

    Some students do not approve of the university’s partnerships with fossil fuel companies, or any financial ties with them.

    For a decade now, students across the nation have filed complaints and demanded divestment from fossil fuels and hundreds of institutions have agreed. Locally, the LSU Climate Pelicans, an interdisciplinary group of students, have called for the university to divest endowment funds from the fossil fuel industry.

    Inspired by the Climate Pelicans’ work toward divestment, the LSU graduate student Alicia Cerquone, who sits on the LSU’s student senate, sponsored a divestment resolution. The measure passed in a 37-2 vote last year, according to LSU’s student newspaper. Though investment in fossil fuels amounts to only 2 to 3% of the endowment, it’s an important philosophical step, Cerquone said.

    Cerquone is also troubled by the influence that industry has on the Institute for Energy Innovation and fears other corporations could control other departments’ curriculums. “These entities are going to have a say in what we pay to learn here,” she said.

    The fossil fuel industry has made forays into academia beyond Louisiana. ExxonMobil and Shell have both helped fund a similar Energy Initiative at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where the highest-level donors can have an office on MIT’s campus, according to Inside Climate News. In 2021, Exxon funded and co-wrote a research paper with MIT researchers with conclusions that supported the argument for federal subsidies for carbon capture and use.

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  • Louisiana Republicans vote to end lunch breaks for child workers

    Louisiana Republicans vote to end lunch breaks for child workers

    It’s been difficult to keep up with the number of Republican efforts in recent years to roll back child labor laws. The Guardian reported in the fall that GOP policymakers at the state level “have led efforts to roll back child labor protections, with bills introduced in at least 16 states.”

    To be sure, not all of the measures are identical. In some states, Republicans want to scrap age verification requirements for employers. In other states, they want minors to be able to serve alcohol. A Washington Post report last year noted some state GOP officials also eyed proposals to allow kids as young as 14 to “work certain jobs in meatpacking plants and shield businesses from civil liability if a child laborer is sickened.”

    Evidently, related efforts are underway again this year, and this NoLa.com report out of Louisiana stood out as especially striking.

    Evidently, now that Republicans control all of the levers of power in Louisiana again — former Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards stepped down after two terms earlier this year — Republican Gov. Jeff Landry directed officials to “reform” the state’s business environment.

    Some GOP officials are taking that directive quite seriously — to the point that they’re advancing a plan to scrap requirements for lunch breaks for child workers.

    According to the local report, the proposal is being championed by Republican state Rep. Roger Wilder, who owns some smoothie franchises across the region, and who said many of his child employees want to work without lunch breaks.

    “The wording is ‘We’re here to harm children.’ Give me a break,” he said. “These are young adults.”

    For the record, the kids might very well be young, but they’re minors, not adults.

    The reporting comes with some caveats: The bill this week passed a state legislative committee, and it’s headed to the state House floor in Louisiana, but it hasn’t yet become law. There’s still time, in other words, for the measure to be amended and/or defeated.

    But the bigger picture is nevertheless unmistakable: In contemporary politics, Republican governance, especially at the state level, is increasingly invested in rolling back child-labor safeguards.

    As for why officials in so many states are “reforming” their child-labor laws — an issue that appeared to be relatively settled until quite recently — there’s reason to believe the sudden flurry is not coincidental.

    The Washington Post last year highlighted the role of something called the Foundation for Government Accountability, which is taking the lead on “maneuvering” these changes through state legislatures.

    With this in mind, there’s no reason to expect these measures to disappear anytime soon.

    This post updates our related earlier coverage.

    This article was originally published on MSNBC.com

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  • Strong storms tear through the South with torrential rain, hail and tornado warnings as over 200K are without power

    Strong storms tear through the South with torrential rain, hail and tornado warnings as over 200K are without power

    Strong storms started rolling across the South on Tuesday night with torrential rain, hail and fierce winds that continued to rage Wednesday killing at least one person, destroying homes, and leaving over 200,000 without power.

    On Wednesday morning, 13 million people were under flood watches from eastern Texas to northern Florida and a ribbon of flash flood warnings extended from southeast Texas, across central Louisiana and into western Mississippi.

    As of 2 p.m., over 272,000 customers were without power across the U.S., with over 144,000 out in Louisiana, over 40,000 out in Texas, 51,000 in Mississippi and over 22,000 out in Virginia, according to PowerOutage.us.

    Heavy rain was pouring across the South and Gulf Coast Wednesday morning into afternoon. Rivers forecast to go into major flood stage include Village Creek near Kountze, Texas, and the Sabine River at Logansport, Louisiana.

    Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves announced Wednesday that one death was reported in Scott County, and one injury in Grenada County as result of the severe weather in the state.

    He noted that preliminary reports indicate 72 homes have been either damaged or destroyed in Grenada, Hinds, Marshall, Scott, Warren, and Yazoo counties.

    In New Orleans, streets have been inundated with water with flash flood warnings in place through around 4 p.m. local time in some areas of the state and a tornado watch in Orleans Parish through 4 p.m. By Wednesday afternoon, the National Weather Service office in New Orleans warned locals in the city metro area to not drive as “numerous roads across the metro are flooded/impassable.”

    St. Tammany Parish shared footage of destruction including downed trees, and destroyed houses and buildings amid heavy rain. Earlier in the day, the parish reported a tornado on the ground in Slidell and Pearl River area.

    Cities that could experience the highest risk of flash flooding Wednesday include Hattiesburg, Mississippi; Mobile and Montgomery, Alabama; and Pensacola, Florida.

    Thirteen million people will see severe storms Wednesday across Louisiana, most of Mississippi, Alabama and western Florida Panhandle. The greatest risk is damaging straight-line wind gusts of over 75 mph followed by numerous tornadoes that could be strong.

    A tornado watch has also been issued for parts of Alabama, Florida and Georgia through 9 p.m. EDT.

    An EF-1 tornado struck the Houston suburb of Katy early Wednesday with 90 mph maximum winds. While the damage survey is still ongoing, it’s consistent with an EF-1 tornado, Jeff Evans of the National Weather Service Office in Houston/Galveston told reporters.

    Louisiana’s Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness warned locals to keep devices charged and stay off the roads due to severe thunderstorm warnings with destructive 80 mph winds through 8:45 a.m. CDT.

    Wednesday’s severe weather comes after there were more than 90 storm reports Tuesday, including reports of hail as large as 4.25 inches in diameter across Texas.

    In Tuesday’s deluge, there were multiple reports of over 6 inches of rainfall and some isolated reports of up to 15 inches, and flood reports are starting to come in early Wednesday from rivers rising across eastern Texas.

    Jasper, Texas, marked 7.58 inches of rainfall; 7.38 inches were clocked in Marshall, Texas; 7.22 inches at Big Sunflower River in Holly Bluff, Mississippi; and 6.24 inches in Monroe, Louisiana. In Kirbyville, Texas, the Pin Oak Creek rose 10 feet in less than six hours.

    The Roganville Volunteer Fire Department shared footage of streets turned into rivers and submerged cars in Kirbyville early Wednesday, warning: “It’s not a good day to be on the road. Please stay at home if you don’t have to be out.”

    A disaster declaration was issued for Jasper County, Texas, which covers Kirbyville, on Wednesday. The Jasper County Sheriff’s Office said the city “remains under water” Wednesday morning and rescue teams have extricated “several” people out of vehicles and homes.

    Severe risk continues Thursday for the Ohio Valley, the Southeast and northern Florida. Thursday’s risks are lower than Wednesday’s, but all hazards will be possible for cities including Jacksonville, Tallahassee and Tampa, Florida, for the southern risk area and Columbus and Cleveland, Ohio, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, across the northern risk area.

    This article was originally published on NBCNews.com



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  • Lawyer for Sex Abuse Victims Says Warning Others About Chaplain Didn’t Violate Secrecy Order

    Lawyer for Sex Abuse Victims Says Warning Others About Chaplain Didn’t Violate Secrecy Order

    NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A New Orleans attorney facing a $400,000 court penalty for warning a school principal and a reporter about an accused sexual predator working at a high school took his case to a federal appeals court Wednesday.

    Richard Trahant, who represents victims of clergy abuse, acknowledges having told a reporter to keep the accused predator “on your radar,” and that he asked the principal whether the person was still a chaplain at the school. But, he said in a Tuesday interview, he gave no specific information about accusations against the man, and did not violate a federal bankruptcy court’s protective order requiring confidentiality.

    It’s a position echoed by Trahant’s lawyer, Paul Sterbcow, under questioning from members of a three-judge panel at the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

    “Here’s my problem. I think I have a moral obligation to disclose something I find out about someone to protect them,” said Judge Priscilla Richman. “But the court has said unequivocally, ‘You are under a protective order. You cannot violate that protective order.’ I do it knowingly. I may have good intentions, but I do it knowingly. To me, that’s an intentional, knowing violation of the order.”

    “Our position is that there was no protective order violation,” Sterbcow told Richman, emphasizing that Trahant was cautious, limiting what he said. “He’s very careful when he communicates to say, I’m constrained by a protective order. I can’t do this. I can’t do that, I can’t reveal this, I can’t reveal that.”

    Outside court, Sterbcow stressed that it has been established that Trahant was not the source for a Jan. 18, 2022, news story about the chaplain, who had by then resigned. Sterbcow also said there were “multiple potential violators” of the protective order.

    Photos You Should See

    The sanctions against Trahant stem from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans’ filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2020 amid growing legal costs related to sexual abuse by priests. The bankruptcy court issued a protective order keeping vast amounts of information under wraps.

    In June 2022, U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Meredith Graybill ruled that Trahant had violated the order. In October of that year she assessed the $400,000 penalty — estimated to be about half the cost of investigating the allegations of the alleged protective order violation.

    The appeal of the bankruptcy court order first went to U.S. District Judge Greg Guidry, who upheld the sanctions. But Guidry later recused himself from handling matters involving the bankruptcy case after an Associated Press report showed he donated tens of thousands of dollars to the archdiocese and consistently ruled in favor of the church in the case involving nearly 500 clergy sex abuse victims.

    The bankruptcy case eventually was assigned to U.S. District Judge Barry Ashe, who last year denied Trahan’s motion to vacate the sanctions.

    Richman at one point in Wednesday’s arguments, suggested that Trahant should have asked Grabill for an exemption from the protective order rather if he thought information needed to get out. It was a point Attorney Mark Mintz, representing the archdiocese, echoed in his argument.

    “If we really thought there was a problem and that the debtor and the court needed to act, all you have to do is pick up the phone and call,” Mintz said.

    Sterbcow said Trahant was concerned at the time that the court would not act quickly enough. “Mr. Trahant did not believe and still doesn’t believe — and now, having reviewed all of this and how this process worked, I don’t believe — that going to the judge was going to provide the children with the protection that they needed, the immediate protection that they needed,” Sterbcow said told Richman.

    The panel did not indicate when it would rule. And the decision may not hinge so much on whether Trahant violated the protective order as on legal technicalities — such as whether Grabill’s initial finding in June 2023 constituted an “appealable order” and whether Trahant was given proper opportunities to make his case before the sanction was issued.

    Richman, nominated to the 5th Circuit by former President George W. Bush, was on the panel with judges Andrew Oldham, nominated by former President Donald Trump, and Irma Ramirez, nominated by President Joe Biden.

    Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • 13 Inmates and Ex-Guards Sentenced in Drug Trafficking Scheme at Louisiana’s Maximum-Security Prison

    13 Inmates and Ex-Guards Sentenced in Drug Trafficking Scheme at Louisiana’s Maximum-Security Prison

    BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Thirteen people convicted in a large-scale drug trafficking network based at Louisiana’s maximum-security prison have been sentenced to a range of time spanning four to 16 years, federal prosecutors said.

    In a news release Monday, U.S. Attorney Ronald Gathe Jr. of Louisiana’s Middle District said Chief U.S. District Judge Shelly D. Dick handed down the sentences to nine people from Louisiana, three from California and one from Mississippi. The drugs sold included cocaine, heroin, marijuana and methamphetamine. He said suppliers were in East Baton Rouge Parish and Colton, California, a suburb of San Bernardino.

    “Most of the controlled substances distributed by this drug trafficking network were shipped to addresses in Baton Rouge from individuals in California,” Gathe said.

    The 13 defendants admitted involvement in a conspiracy to distribute the drugs between February 2017 and May 2019 at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola and elsewhere, through the use of correctional officers and other prison staff, Gathe said.

    The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United States Postal Inspection Service led the investigation with help from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives; Louisiana Department of Corrections; Louisiana State Police; and the St. Francisville Police Department.

    Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • Wide swath of US will get buggy as two cicada broods intrude

    Wide swath of US will get buggy as two cicada broods intrude

    By Will Dunham

    (Reuters) – Cicadas, the noisy but rather tame insects that spend most of their lives underground, are poised to put on quite a show starting this month in a wide swath of the United States.

    Two sizable adjacent broods of periodical cicadas – the kind that spend a specific number of years underground as nymphs before popping up together for a brief bacchanalia of singing and mating – are set to emerge simultaneously, one concentrated in Midwestern states and the other in the South and Midwest.

    These two broods – one on a 17-year cycle and the other on a 13-year cycle – together span parts of 17 states. And, according to experts, they will number more than a trillion.

    “They live as adults for just a few short weeks and then die after reproducing. In total, the adult portion of their extremely long lives is less than 0.5% of their total life – 99.5% of their life is spent underground,” George Washington University entomologist John Lill said.

    These two broods emerge together only once every 221 years, last occurring in 1803. While nymphs in small numbers already are being spotted, the first big wave in the coming weeks is expected in the southernmost areas of the broods in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia, with the cicadas further northern emerging in subsequent weeks. The last cicadas in these broods will be lucky to see July.

    “This is the first time these two broods are going to be emerging in the same year since Thomas Jefferson was in the White House and the same year as the Louisiana Purchase,” said entomologist Floyd Shockley of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, referring to the huge U.S. land purchase from France, some of which is inhabited by these two broods.

    Cicadas are relatively large insects – 1-2 inches (2.5-5 cm) long – with sturdy bodies, bulging compound eyes and membranous wings.

    The 17-year cycle Brood XIII is found in northern Illinois, eastern Iowa, southern Wisconsin and a few counties in northwestern Indiana. The 13-year cycle Brood XIX is distributed in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.

    “There’s nowhere else in the world where it’s possible to see anything at all like this, so I always counsel people to treat them with the respect and awe due to such remarkable creatures,” said University of Connecticut evolutionary biologist John Cooley.

    There are more than 3,000 species of cicadas globally. Only nine are periodical, and seven of those are found in North America.

    “I find them delightfully awkward, as they are not particularly agile flyers. I also find them captivating and endearing. They are very gentle, and I also find them quite beautiful with the deep red eyes, bluish black body, and the orange wings,” Shockley said.

    While underground, nymphs feed on plant juices from the roots of deciduous trees and shrubs. They begin emerging, mainly at night, once the soil reaches a certain warmth, crawling up hard surfaces – tree trunks, telephone poles, fences, trash cans and more – and molt into adult winged cicadas.

    Adult males “sing” to attract females using special organs on the abdomen. Females that are attracted to a particular male’s call respond with wing flicks, which also make a sound. Pairs then mate.

    This year marks the first time since 2015 that a 13-year brood emerges at the same time as a 17-year brood, though those were not adjacent.

    Some people do not share the fondness for cicadas expressed by the scientists, instead finding them icky and gross.

    “Insofar as cicadas and their place, they are making a living, just like everything else,” Cooley said. “The species have a long history – millions of years. And that history is much longer and deeper than the history of the landscapes and forests in which they live – on the order of tens of thousands of years. So the cicadas are a natural part of the ecosystem.”

    (Reporting by Will Dunham in Washington, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)

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  • James Patterson Launches True Crime Series on Fox Nation

    James Patterson Launches True Crime Series on Fox Nation

    NEW YORK (AP) — James Patterson is launching a true crime series on the streaming service Fox Nation. “Unsolved With James Patterson,” hosted by the million-selling author, premieres Monday and will air in three segments.

    According to Fox Nation, Patterson’s series will include a trio of unsolved homicide cases: the death of a Louisiana schoolteacher who became increasingly unstable and locked down in her home with guns and cameras before being found with a shotgun wound to the head; a Utah student who joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and soon after disappeared; and an altruistic San Francisco resident who disappeared and was later found dismembered.

    “I was totally gripped by these cases,” Patterson said in a statement. “The fact that they are real-life stories — and that we may help bring justice to the victims and their families — is very special.”

    The series will include interviews with friends, relatives and law enforcement officials.

    Patterson, whose books have sold more than 400 million copies, has written numerous thrillers, along with nonfiction books about the Kennedys and John Lennon, among others. Last week, Fox Nation announced it had reached a deal with Martin Scorsese to host, narrate and produce an eight-part religious docudrama called “Martin Scorsese Presents: The Saints.”

    Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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