Author: manshipxgr

Published: April 23, 2026

By: Gifford Greer, LSU Manship School News Service

LAFAYETTE — Long before crowds filled downtown Lafayette, Lori Hurst was already at work, rolling thousands of edible balls by hand. Some were stuffed with fresh seafood, and others with savory sweets. By the time the first festivalgoers arrived on Wednesday at Festival International de Louisiane, 20,000 of the delicacies were ready to serve.

“We were told to find our niche and market the hell out of it,” Hurst said.

That niche is fried balls. And at the festival, Poor Boy’s Riverside Inn has carved out a reputation among the food vendors for keeping lines long and customers loyal.

For decades, Festival International has celebrated Francophone culture through music, art and food from around the world and draws thousands to Lafayette each spring. The family-oriented, non-ticketed festival debuted in 1987 to boost Louisiana’s economy and cultural tourism during a statewide oil bust.

The festival, which runs through Sunday, celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. Nearly 30 food vendors offer everything from traditional Cajun dishes to globally inspired cuisine.

Read more at WBRZ.

Published: April 25, 2026

By: Kylah Babin, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE — The Senate Education Committee unanimously advanced a bill on Wednesday that would strive to protect children from deepfakes and other scenarios where their character could be damaged by improper use of artificial intelligence. 

Sen. Regina Barrow, D-Baton Rouge, proposed Senate Bill 346, which would prohibit the use of deepfakes against students enrolled in K-12. The deepfakes would include any audio or visual content that would be altered to falsely portray a student.

The bill was inspired by a story last November from Lafourche Parish, where a 13-year-old girl was expelled from school for hitting a classmate who made a deepfake porn image of her.

“I was so heartbroken when I heard her story because in all the ways she cried out for help, she didn’t get help until she responded,” Barrow said, referring to the girl’s attack on her classmate. “Not that we actually condoned that type of behavior, but it should never have ruled to that level in the first place.”

Read more at Plaquemine Post South.

Published: April 23, 2026

By: Sheldon “Trey” Vice III, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE, La. (LSU Manship School News Service) – The House unanimously approved a bill Wednesday that would require app providers to verify the age of anyone in Louisiana who creates a digital account and require minors to associate their accounts with those of their parents.

House Bill 977, authored by Rep. Beau Beaullieu, R-New Iberia, was approved 94-0 and sent to the Senate. Beaullieu called the bill a vital step in the right direction to protect children online.

“This is a parental consent bill when it comes to minors in the use of applications,” Beaullieu said.

“The pillar of this bill is the mandate that covered application providers provide verifiable consent before allowing the minor to download the application and make in-app purchases and create a profile,” he said. “The law requires providers to verify the age of users. If a user is determined to be a minor, they must be affiliated with a parent account to ensure adult supervision.”

Read more at KATC.

Published: April 23, 2026

By: Gracie Thomas, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE – The Louisiana House shot down a bill by only three votes Wednesday that sought to create a lifetime limit of two terms as governor.

House Bill 225 by Rep. Michael Bayham, R-Chalmette, would have asked voters to amend the state Constitution to set the limit on Louisiana’s most powerful government officials.

Governors now may serve only two consecutive terms but can be elected again if they sit out a term in between.

Bayham’s proposal aimed to place Louisiana in line with nine other states, including Arkansas, Mississippi and Oklahoma, that already adhere to the two-term lifetime limit.

Read more at KALB.

Published: April 23, 2026

By: Sheridan White, Veronica Camenzuli and Kylah Babin, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE – A bill seeking to expand access to fresh groceries in underserved areas advanced without opposition from the House Commerce Committee on Wednesday.

Proposals to establish a 45-day window for energy companies to return overcharges to consumers and to require greater transparency about fees included in the prices of various goods and services also advanced through the committee this week. But bills to equalize grocery prices at the wholesale level and other consumer prices failed or were deferred.

The bills were among a half dozen involving affordability issues that were considered in House and Senate committees. All the bills were filed by Democrats, and they mirrored national political trends as mid-term elections approach for Congress with consumers are facing with stubborn inflation and rising gas prices.

House Bill 1222 by Rep. Rodney Lyons, D-Marrero, which advanced Wednesday, seeks to expand the availability of fresh food in underserved communities.

The legislation would allow Louisiana Economic Development to create an initiative focused on attracting grocery stores to areas that lack them and helping existing stores remain stocked. 

Read more at Minden Press-Herald.

Published: April 23, 2026

By: Gracie Thomas, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE — The Louisiana Senate unanimously passed a bill Tuesday that would provide protections for high school and college student-athletes engaging in Name, Image and Likeness contracts.

NIL programs allow student-athletes to receive compensation from third-party companies for the use of their name, photos, videos and voices in social media posts or promotional content.

Senate Bill 389 would provide regulatory oversight of endorsement contracts and require agents who represent student-athletes across the state to register with the Louisiana Department of Justice’s public protection division, as well as complete training and pass background checks.

The regulations already are required of professional agents, but the bill would be extended to anyone seeking to represent high school and college student-athletes in Louisiana.

The bill, by Sen. Patrick Connick, R-Marrero, also would allow the public protection division to deny renewals for an agent’s registration certificate and revoke an agent’s certificate of registration if he or she has engaged in fraud or caused harm to student-athletes or their schools.

Read more at Shreveport Times.

Published: April 22, 2026

By: Izzy Wollfarth, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE — Despite the opposition of Black Caucus members, the House advanced a bill 70-28 that would protect licensed armed security guards from civil liability charges if they are proven justified in discharging a firearm.

House Bill 71 by Rep. Josh Carlson, R-Lafayette, advanced Monday to the Senate with all but three Black Caucus members in opposition. The three other caucus members were absent from the vote.

Carlson said his bill would classify a licensed armed security guard as an “authorized person,” thereby providing protection from civil lawsuits should law enforcement officers and district attorneys deem the guard’s use of a gun as justified.

The “authorized person” classification already includes anyone with a valid concealed handgun permit, active and honorably discharged military members and any authorized law enforcement officer.

Under the bill, if a licensed security guard’s actions are found justifiable in criminal court, the guard and the private security company that employs the guard would not be held liable for civil damages.

Read more at Houma Today.

Published: April 20, 2026

By: Sheridan White, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE – A Public Affairs Research Council webinar brought together policy experts who expressed sharp differences on the five constitutional amendments voters will consider in the May 16 election.

The topics include civil service protections, the creation of a new school district for the city of St. George, permanent teacher pay raises, property taxes and raising the age limit for judges. If you’d like to watch a video of the presentation, scroll down.

PAR also provides a clear, non-partisan analysis of all proposed amendments to Louisiana’s Constitution; to read those, click here.

Louisiana voters rejected a sweeping package of amendments last year that bundled together a number of policy changes, including a proposed teacher pay raise.

Critics said those measures were overly complex and combined too many unrelated issues, fueling voter skepticism. Lawmakers responded this year by simplifying the new proposals, aiming to give voters clearer choices on individual issues.

Read more at KATC.

Published: April 16, 2026

By: Kylah Babin, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE – A Senate committee’s discussion of a bill to remake the state’s child welfare system brought Gov. Jeff Landry more deeply into efforts to fix the troubled agency.

Sen. Patrick McMath, R-Covington, proposed to move the responsibility of child welfare from the Department of Children and Family Services to the Louisiana Department of Health.

Under his bill, the Louisiana State Police would run a call center for reports of child abuse, and the attorney general’s office would handle child support enforcement.

“There is a unique opportunity here and true desire here to fix a broken system,” McMath said.

Read more at KATC.

Published: April 16, 2026

By: Sheridan White, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE — The Senate Health and Welfare Committee debated a bill that would require Medicaid to cover FDA-approved weight-loss medications for its recipients.

Roughly 145,000 Medicaid adults in the state would qualify for coverage of the weight-loss medicines, according to the Louisiana Department of Health Medicaid Director Seth Gold.

Senate Bill 433, proposed by Sen. Gerald Boudreaux, D-Lafayette, was amended Wednesday and will be held to be revisited by the full committee.

Louisiana has a serious obesity problem, with approximately 40% of adults having a body mass index of 30 or higher, according to America’s Health Rankings from the United Health Foundation.

The state ranks third in the country in adult obesity and second in the country in childhood obesity.

Read more at KALB.