Author: manshipxgr

Published: June 16, 2020

By: Catherine Hunt, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE —Two bills that aim to lower insurance rates in Louisiana by limiting damage suits by people injured in car accidents passed the House Monday and will move to the Senate for debate.

Both are generally similar to a bill by Sen. Kirk Talbot, R-River Ridge, that had been approved by the Legislature but was vetoed by Gov. John Bel Edwards on Friday.

It’s unclear if Republican legislators will attempt to muster the two-thirds majority vote needed to override Edwards’ veto of Talbot’s bill or hope that one of Garofalo or Schexnayder’s bills will have more success in the next two weeks before the special session ends.

The new bills each passed the House by wide enough margins that suggest either could survive a veto if the governor opposed them.

Also Monday, Edwards signed a bill backed by Republican leaders to give $300 million of the more than $900 million in federal coronavirus relief aid to businesses instead of routing all of it to state and local governments, as the governor had preferred.

All three bills aim to lower car insurance rates for drivers in Louisiana, who pay the second highest premiums in the country after Michigan, by changing Louisiana’s tort laws that Republican say make it too easy for injured people to file lawsuits after car accidents.

The new bills were written by Rep. Ray Garofalo, R-Chalmette, and Speaker of the House Clay Schexnayder, R-Gonzales.

Both bills remove the last-minute flaw added into Talbot’s bill that would have required judges to award damages to injured plaintiffs at 1 ½ times the total premiums they had paid, resulting in tens of thousands of dollars more than the bill’s supporters had intended for many plaintiffs.

Read more at Shreveport Times

Published: June 16, 2020

By: Sydney McGovern, LSU Manship School News Service

A dozen times over three decades, Claiborne Parish resident Frederick Douglass Lewis had tried to register to vote in Louisiana, only to be denied time after time.

During his adult life, he had held numerous jobs to feed his family. He worked as a farmer, carpenter, stonemason and insurance salesman. He also taught Sunday School.

In almost every way, Lewis, who was born in 1905, had done his best to do what was right. All he had ever wanted was just a chance, a fair fight if nothing else, to enjoy the rights afforded to white Americans.

Lewis paid taxes but did not benefit as much from the taxes he paid. Because he was not allowed to register to vote, he didn’t have a say in government. He could not serve on the police jury, school board or in the state Legislature.

After years of frustration, Lewis decided he and his African American brothers had to do more.

On a summer night in 1965, he and a handful of other black men secretly formed a new chapter in Homer of an organization that would help bring about significant change in civil rights in Louisiana.

These men became members of the Louisiana-born group known as the Deacons for Defense and Justice. It sought, among other things, to protect those, black or white, who fought to advance the liberties and freedoms that had only been provided to white Americans.

Read more at BR Proud

 

 

Published: June 12, 2020

By: Catherine Hunt, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE — A House committee unanimously supported a bill Thursday that would let state universities continue to increase student fees at a time when they are facing tens of millions of dollars in cuts in state support and in costs from the COVID-19 shutdown.
The bill, by Rep. Jerome “Zee” Zeringue, R-Houma, attempts to mitigate those impacts while also considering student concerns about rising fees.

The House passed another version of his bill last month, but the Senate surprisingly failed to act on it before the regular session ended June 1.

Zeringue’s original bill would have allowed colleges and universities to set their own fee levels until 2023. He adjusted it so that the ability to do so ends at the end of the 2021 school year.

Some legislators worried that families would be negatively impacted by rising fees during a pandemic, which has caused over 300,000 Louisianans to file for unemployment.

Despite a projected drop in tax revenues, the Legislature has largely been able to avoid major cuts in much of the state budget for the next fiscal year, which starts July 1, by relying on roughly $1 billion in federal aid related to the pandemic.

But lawmakers are planning to cut the higher education budget by at least $21 million, even as they move to suspend various taxes and fees to help businesses at a significant cost in lost tax revenues for the state.

Several university leaders supported Zeringue’s bill at a hearing Thursday. They said they are still trying to determine how to handle virus-related costs that far exceed what they are receiving under the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security, or CARES, Act.

The federal funds for each school were determined by the percentage of students receiving Pell Grants who were not enrolled in online classes before the virus forced students to switch to online classes exclusively. Half of the funds provided under the act must be allocated to students.

Read more at St. Mary Now

Published: June 11, 2020

By: Kathleen Peppo, LSU Manship School News Service

The Louisiana Department of Health committed Thursday to studying the spread of COVID-19 in nursing homes throughout the state to better handle the spread of infectious diseases in the future.

State Rep. Aimee Freeman, D-New Orleans, said her district was the first to experience a cluster of COVID-19-related nursing home deaths. Health Department officials promised her that they would study the ways in which certain nursing homes prevented the virus’s spread and the ways in which other nursing homes failed.

“It’s my wish that we can study this in a way that we can understand what went wrong and what worked well,” said Freeman. “I have five nursing homes in my district, and some of them had no cases. So, there are things that were done well.”

Freeman said that 23 people died because of COVID-19 complications in the first nursing home to report a case.

Although Freeman’s district was the first, its situation was not unique.

“I know that I’m not the only member who had these issues in their district,” Freeman said. She said many House members called her for advice.

According to the health department website, as of June 8, 122 adult residential facilities have reported at least one case of COVID-19. Ninety-one COVID-19-related deaths and 630 total cases have been reported by these facilities. The information is updated each Monday.

The website also says that the spread of the virus is the greatest risk to the vulnerable residents of these facilities.

“It’s very important to understand what happened there and how that worked,” Freeman said, “and to make sure that we look at the COVID deaths that specifically happened in nursing homes throughout our community in Louisiana.”

Read more at The Advocate

 

 

Published: June 11, 2020

By: Catherine Hunt, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE–A House committee voted 8-4 Wednesday to reject a bill that would require the Legislature to decide whether an insurance company could avoid lowering auto insurance rates if it claimed it might face insolvency.

The bill, by Rep. Ted James, D-Baton Rouge, aimed to fix problems that Democrats have with a bill by Sen. Kirk Talbot, R-River Ridge, that would attempt to lower insurance premiums by targeting Louisiana’s civil justice system.

Republicans also have problems with Talbot’s bill. After negotiating with Gov. John Bel Edwards just before the Legislature approved the bill, Talbot added wording that would require judges to award damages to injured plaintiffs at 1 ½ times the total premiums they had paid, resulting in tens of thousands of dollars more than the bill’s supporters had intended for many plaintiffs.

Legislative committees passed several bills Tuesday that would fix the wording as lawmakers wait to see if Edwards, who opposed the bill, will sign or veto it.

Republicans say that Talbot’s bill would likely lower auto insurance rates by at least 10% and up to 25% in some cases. However, if an insurance company could prove that a 10% reduction would lead to insolvency, it could be exempt from lowering its rates.

Democrats point out that Talbot’s bill does not mandate any rate reductions. They also contend that would make it harder for many injured plaintiffs to receive fair compensation.

Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon, a Republican, has said that while Talbot’s bill doesn’t require rate cuts, he would expect most companies to cut their rates, with the only exception being firms that couldn’t do it without being forced into insolvency.

James’ bill would have required legislative approval before a company potentially facing insolvency was granted total or partial relief from rate reductions.

James said he was trying to hold lawmakers promising lower rates accountable by requiring them to decide if an insurance company could avoid rate reductions.

Read more at The Franklin Sun

 

 

Published: June 10, 2020

By: Kathleen Peppo, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE, La. – A proposal to establish a group to study law enforcement in Louisiana in response to national incidents of police brutality sparked a racially charged debate Wednesday among House committee members.

Rep. Ted James, D-Baton Rouge, proposed the resolution, describing it as a call to study “a plethora of issues,” from civil service agreements to the use of force, involving policing across Louisiana.

The main source of the debate was the preamble to the resolution, in which James mentioned the death of George Floyd at the hands of a white police officer in Minneapolis who knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes. The preamble stated that the deaths of other black men by white police officers raised questions about the treatment of minorities in the criminal justice system.

The House Governmental Affairs Committee ultimately voted to remove the preamble from the resolution.

Rep. Dodie Horton, R-Haughton, was one of several Republicans who raised strong concerns about the language.

“I come from a law-enforcement family, and as a representative, I’ve never seen a more racist document than the one you brought,” Horton said.

She said she had “never been more insulted” since she took office than she was by the use of racial language in the resolution.

Read more at KALB

Published: June 12, 2020

By: Alyssa Berry and Matthew Clark, LSU Manship School News Service

BOGALUSA, La. — Fiery red dust filled the air as Henry Austan, a 21-year-old insurance bill collector for an African-American agency, sped down a Washington Parish dirt road during the early spring of 1965.

After he finished his rounds and the sun began to set, he headed east outside Franklinton, the parish seat, en route to Bogalusa. Glancing at the rear-view mirror, Austan realized a group of white men was tailing him.

His car had been shot at before, leaving holes in the driver’s door.

“A couple of times they almost caught me, and I stopped thinking of it as a joke,” Austan said. “These people seriously wanted to kill me.”

Part 1: A half-century ago in Jonesboro, armed black men fought back

Following his usual route, he crossed a wooden bridge, turned down a dirt road and pulled into a pasture behind a line of trees. There, he positioned himself out of sight under the bridge.

After turning off his headlights, he took out a sawed-off double-barrel shotgun, shells loaded with glass and cardboard, and waited for his pursuers to reach him. When their lights approached, Austan opened fire, surprising the driver. The vehicle swerved, missed the bridge and ran into the water, clearing an escape path for Austan.

 

Published: June 15, 2020

By: Maria Marsh, LSU Manship School News Service

Two LSU professors released surveys June 8 showing that Louisiana residents have conflicted feelings about the reopening of the state and the risks of various activities during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Seventy-five percent of respondents reported feeling uncomfortable about attending large sports or entertainment events, and 77 percent were uncomfortable getting on an airplane. Sixty percent were nervous about eating in a restaurant, and 56 percent were reluctant to go to barber shops or hair salons.

However, the majority of the same respondents reported feeling comfortable with different social activities that many people did not stop doing during the pandemic. Sixty-seven percent of respondents reported feeling comfortable going to grocery stores and 58 percent felt comfortable socializing with friends.

The survey also showed that 42 percent of Louisiana residents know someone who has tested positive for the novel coronavirus, and 23 percent knew someone who died from the virus.

The survey also found a racial imbalance.

Forty-nine of Black respondents reported knowing someone who tested positive for the virus, while only 39 percent of white respondents knew someone who tested positive. Forty percent of black respondents knew someone who had died from the virus, while only 17 percent of their white counterparts knew someone who died from it.

Read more at The Louisiana Weekly

Published: June 5, 2020

By: By Catherine Hunt, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE — A Senate committee advanced a bill Friday that would suspend franchise taxes for small business corporations in Louisiana.

The bill was passed in a special legislative session that is focused on finishing a $33 billion budget for next fiscal year and considering tax cuts for businesses hurt by the coronavirus pandemic.

The franchise-tax bill, by Sen. Bret Allain, R-Franklin, is one of 15 bills approved for debate that aims to suspend or cut taxes on businesses as they recover from the coronavirus shutdown.

Franchise taxes are imposed on businesses operating in the state. Businesses must pay $1.50 in taxes for each $1,000 of capital and $3 for each $1,000 in excess of $300,000 of capital.

Allain’s bill would suspend the corporation franchise tax on the first $300,000 of taxable capital for small businesses. That change would cost the state $5.4 million in lost revenues in the fiscal year beginning July 1.

The cuts in business taxes were proposed by a task force formed by Senate President Page Cortez and Speaker of the House Clay Schexnayder, both Republicans.

In the regular session that ended Monday, legislators passed a Republican plan that would use $300 million out of $811 million of federal COVID-19 relief money to provide grants to small businesses.

Read more at Houma Today

 

Published: June 8, 2020

By: Bailey Williams, LSU Manship School News Service

On a July night in Jonesboro, Louisiana, in 1964, the rumble of engines encroached on a quiet, black neighborhood then known as “The Quarters.” As residents stepped out onto their porches, they observed a line of cars—maybe 50 in all—with two to four men in each vehicle, their faces covered by white hoods.

As the Ku Klux Klan motorcade, lit up by the assistant chief of police car in front, paraded through the neighborhood, the intruders jeered and cursed. In their wake, sheets of paper fluttered through the air before settling onto the unpaved road. Alarmed parents instructed their children to stay inside and away from windows.

Once the cars moved on, neighbors gathered the litter from the streets. The KKK leaflets threatened retaliation if African-Americans engaged with the Congress of Racial Equality, CORE, a civil rights group that assisted black communities with voter registration and integration of public facilities.

A mill town in Jackson Parish,  Jonesboro  is located at the center of north Louisiana. Its economy a half-century ago was fueled by the timber industry, paper and sawmills, as well as a canning company. In 1964, as Jackson Parish native Jimmie Davis completed his final term as governor, the parish population stood at about 16,000. Over a fourth of the residents lived in Jonesboro. The town was founded during the Civil War, and in the years afterward the Jim Crow mentality was firmly established.

CORE arrived in Jonesboro earlier in this “Freedom Summer” of 1964. The activists busied themselves organizing voter registration drives from within the confines of black churches. They also joined demonstrations to desegregate public accommodations, such as the restaurants and the community swimming pool. CORE’s presence, as well as the enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, moved racial tensions to a new height.

Alarmed by the motor parade and the threat against CORE, black residents ran back to their homes to retrieve their shotguns and pistols. Some stayed behind to defend their property, while another group headed to the Freedom House, CORE’s lodging, and stood guard until daylight. The Klansmen did not return that night.

Klansmen were wrong to think their  motorcade and threats would cower the black community. Instead, hundreds of black residents crammed wall-to-wall onto the second floor of their Masonic Hall building, the KKK leaflets clenched tight into their fists.

The cold hard facts were clear: If cops were supporting the Klan’s attempt to intimidate black neighborhoods, the citizens could only rely on themselves for  protection.

Read more at Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting