Author: manshipxgr

Published: June 7, 2019

By: Lauren Heffker, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE—House and Senate lawmakers on Thursday passed legislation that would require elected officials and public employees involved in sexual harassment suits to pay all or a portion of the legal fees, instead of using taxpayer dollars.

Gov. John Bel Edwards is also expected to sign a bill that would expand the legal protection of law enforcement officers who have received verbal or written threats.

These proposals were backed by legislators from both sides of the aisle.

Sponsored by Sen. Sharon Hewitt, R-Slidell, the sexual harassment bill is an effort to hold public officials and employees accountable while also reducing the amount of public money spent on the settlement of these suits.

Lawsuits involving sexual harassment have cost Louisiana taxpayers $5 million since 2009, according to a 2018 legislative audit.

“I brought this bill so that those who that are guilty of sexual harassment would have some skin in the game and be financially accountable for their actions,” Hewitt said.

The proposal would make claims against public employees, and the settlements, public record. Under Hewitt’s bill, the victim’s name would not be included in the public records. Employees making false sexual harassment accusations, however, could face disciplinary measures.

The sexual harassment bill now heads to the governor’s desk for final review.

Louisiana legislators already passed a series of laws last year to curb sexual harassment in the state in light of the national #MeToo movement.

One high profile case involved the state’s chief election officer.

In 2018, the state paid almost $184,000 in the sexual harassment lawsuit against former Secretary of State Tom Schedler.

Schedler, who held the office since 2010, resigned in May 2018 after he was accused of sexual harassment by one of his female employees.

Read more at Bossier Press-Tribune.

(Photo credit: 4WWL)

Published: June 6, 2019

By: Hunter Lovell, LSU Manship News Service

BATON ROUGE — It appears Louisiana sports enthusiasts will have to wait at least two more years for fantasy sports betting after an unexpected turn of events in the final minutes of the 2019 legislative session.

The Senate failed to pass a tax bill for fantasy sports betting after Sen. Danny Martiny, R-Metairie, ran out the clock at the podium out of anger that his bid to also allow betting on real sports had failed. The session had to end by 6 p.m. Thursday.

Martiny voiced his disagreement with House members who stripped the bill’s amendments, which included real sports betting. His main opponents were Rep. Kirk Talbot, R-River Ridge, and Rep. Cameron Henry, R-Metairie.

“I don’t think this is the way you do business,” Martiny said. “I don’t like the way that I was treated. I would feel the same way if any of my colleagues were treated this way.”

Martiny’s push for real sports betting was always seen as a longshot given opposition from religious and conservative family groups from the north and central parts of Louisiana.

But by filibustering the fantasy sports bill, he ended up denying the state the revenue it would have gained over the next two years from taxes on fantasy sports betting. His actions also ran counter to what the voters in 47 of the 64 parishes wanted in voting last fall to approve fantasy sports betting.

“Very, very disappointing,” said Ryan Berni, spokesman for Fairness for Fantasy Sports Louisiana, a political action committee financed by the two largest daily fantasy sports providers. “I’m especially sad for the voters of the state who voted for this. The Legislature did not uphold the will of the voters.”

Just before this final bit of drama, the Senate had approved the regulatory framework for fantasy sports betting after Senate President John Alario, R-Westwego, decided the bill did not need a two-thirds majority vote for passage.

Fantasy sports games allow sports fans to construct virtual teams of real athletes from professional sports on mobile phones or computer desktops. These teams then compete in head-to-head matchups, and fans can win cash rewards based off actual player performance.

The fantasy sports legislation bills, sponsored by Talbot, will have to wait until the 2021 legislative session because the Legislature can only take up tax measures in odd-numbered years.

“They’re both linked to each other,” Talbot told the Associated Press. “We will not have fantasy sports for two years.”

Read more at 4WWL-TV.

Published: June 5, 2019

By: Lauren Heffker and Tryfon Boukouvidis, LSU Manship News Service

BATON ROUGE—The Louisiana Senate voted 37-0 Wednesday to tighten hazing laws since incidents keep occurring on college campuses even though lawmakers took several steps to crack down on the problems last year.

Sponsored by Rep. Nancy Landry, R-Lafayette, the bill approved by the Senate would penalize universities and student organizations that fail to immediately report hazing incidents to law enforcement, and it would allow campus police to investigate off-campus hazing incidents.

The Legislature elevated hazing from a misdemeanor to a felony last year after LSU freshman Maxwell Gruver died of alcohol poisoning at a fraternity pledge event.

Since then, LSU has suspended other fraternities over hazing allegations. The Delta Kappa Epsilon chapter there was closed by its national chapter in January after a hazing investigation.

The bill passed by the Senate would repeal a law that allows student organizations and universities 14 days to investigate hazing allegations before calling the police.

Landry’s bill, which now goes back to the House to reconcile smaller changes, also would require student organizations to adopt no-hazing policies.

Under the bill, the Board of Regents would have to make information on hazing incidents available to the public so parents and students can determine which fraternities or sororities they might want to avoid, and university officials would have to document in writing their responses to hazing complaints.

Walter Kimbrough, the president of Dillard University in New Orleans, urged Landry on Twitter before the Senate vote not to rush the anti-hazing legislation without input from campus leaders, student affairs professionals, and hazing experts.

“We were not consulted with the last legislation and as we all know, it didn’t work,” Kimbrough, who is considered an expert on hazing issues, tweeted.

Sen. Dan Claitor, R-Baton Rouge, who presented Landry’s bill on the Senate floor Wednesday, said it would provide “proper tightening of this law based on our experience.”

“When we did the hazing criminal statute rewrite, we gave some of the organizations essentially a whole lot of time to get their story straight, and it’s worked to the disadvantage of the district attorney’s office and the others investigating this matter,” Claitor said.

Read more at KALB.com.

(Photo credit: FOX 8 News)

Published: June 5, 2019

By: Hunter Lovell, LSU Manship News Service

BATON ROUGE—House and Senate lawmakers passed several abortion bills Wednesday (June 5), less than a week after Louisiana’s governor signed the strict ‘fetal heartbeat’ ban into law.

This legislative session lawmakers from both sides of the aisle have proposed and lobbied anti-abortion laws.

Both chambers approved the bid for a constitutional amendment, which was sponsored by Rep. Katrina Jackson, D-Baton Rouge. This measure would potentially amend Louisiana’s constitution to say that it does not protect the legal right to have an abortion or to secure public funding for the procedure.

The House voted 79-20 on the measure, sending it to the Senate which approved it with a 33-5 vote.

(Photo credit: Vitezslav Valka)

Published: June 5, 2019

By: Hunter Lovell, LSU Manship News Service

BATON ROUGE—The Louisiana House today voted 82-0 to allow medical marijuana patients to inhale cannabis, sending the bill to the governor’s desk for final approval.

The legislation, sponsored by Rep. Ted James, D-Baton Rouge, does not allow smoking, but patients can inhale medical marijuana through a device similar to an asthma inhaler.

Present law permits patients to consume medical marijuana through edibles, oils and extracts.

The bill initially stalled in the Senate as lawmakers sought to expand the number of licenses to prescribe medical cannabis, but legislators revived the measure after including “metered-dose inhaler” in the definition of acceptable devices.

James also added an amendment to allow doctors who live outside the state to suggest therapeutic medical marijuana treatment. The current law only permits in-state physicians to recommend medical cannabis usage.

In order to legally receive medical marijuana, patients must have “debilitating medical conditions,” such as cancer, epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, intractable pain and/or HIV.

No medical cannabis has been delivered to patients yet because of an ongoing feud between the state’s agriculture commissioner, Mike Strain, and the LSU AgCenter over a dispute about growing methods. Therapeutic marijuana is expected to be available later this year.

Other efforts to update the state’s cannabis laws were successfully passed during this legislative session.

House lawmakers on Monday unanimously supported a bill to legalize industrial hemp and allow the growth and sale of certain CBD products in Louisiana.

The proposal, sponsored by Rep. Clay Schexnayder, R-Gonzales, was sent to the governor’s desk for review and approval. Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat running for re-election in the fall, has said he is supportive of hemp regulation in Louisiana.

The Senate’s Agricultural Committee added a number of amendments to Schexnayder’s bill before the Senate approved the proposal in a 34-2 vote.

Hemp and marijuana come from the same plant species, but hemp contains nearly no TCH or psychoactive properties. Hemp is the fiber of the cannabis plant, and is a multi-use material that can be used to make rope, fabric and paper products.

Read more at NOLA.com

Published: June 4, 2019

By: Hunter Lovell, LSU Manship News Service

BATON ROUGE—The Senate on Tuesday approved a 15.5-percent tax on online fantasy sports betting along with an amendment that represented a last-ditch effort to keep the possibility of betting on real sports alive.

The bill now goes back to the House, which supports the tax on fantasy sports betting but has opposed gambling on real football, basketball and baseball games.

The Senate vote came after an angry fight between two Republican lawmakers from Metairie — Sen. Danny Martiny, who has pushed to legalize real sports betting, and Rep. Cameron Henry, the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, who bottled up Martiny’s bill in his committee.

Henry went so far as to duck out of committee meetings at key moments to block any reconsideration of Martiny’s proposal.

Martiny, whose tenure in the Senate ends Thursday due to term limits, was furious that Henry went to such lengths to head him off.

“This is the last bill that I will ever handle in the legislature,” Martiny said in an interview. “I’m not going to go down without a fight.”

The House and the Senate have both approved the 15.5 percent tax on fantasy sports. But given Henry’s opposition to legalizing betting on real sports, the House could still strip that amendment from what the Senate approved Tuesday, leaving it up to a House-Senate conference committee to decide the fate of both parts of the bill.

Last November, voters in 47 of the state’s 64 parishes approved wagering on fantasy sports matchups, leaving it to the Legislature to create a tax and regulatory framework.

It was clear after voters approved fantasy sports wagering in so many parishes last fall that Martiny and others would try to use that momentum to win that approval for legalizing betting on real sports as well.

Read more at WBRZ.com

 

(Photo credit: MGN)

Published: June 3, 2019

By: Lauren Heffker and Hunter Lovell, LSU Manship News Service

BATON ROUGE— A proposal that would expand the state’s foster care system passed the House in an 87-1 vote and now heads to the governor’s desk.

Sponsored by Sen. Regina Barrow, D-Baton Rouge, the bill would extend Louisiana’s foster care program for young adults up to 21, instead of aging them out at 18.

The proposal would cost the state $3 million, but the Edwards administration indicated it would support the bill as long as it was backed by the Legislature.

Read more at KALB.com.

(Photo credit: Pexels)

Published: June 3, 2019

By: Tryfon Boukouvidis, LSU Manship News Service

BATON ROUGE—Lawmakers have considered a bill that seeks to address the spike in cellphone-related accidents and deaths on Louisiana roads.

A bill by Mike Huval, R-Breaux Bridge, would expand the existing ban of cellphone usage while driving in school zones to all roads.

The proposal would also decrease the fines associated with texting while driving from $500 to $100 for a first violation and from $1,000 to $300 for a second violation.

A third violation would then incur fines of up to $300. The proposal would also lower the driver’s license suspension for a third violation from 60 to 30 days.

Safe driving practices, Huval said, is the main idea behind his bill. He cited other states that enforced similar legislation and as a consequence reported a decline in fatal car accidents.

Cellphone-related fatal accidents are on the rise in the state, according to data from the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development. This year, there were nine fatalities and 317 cases of injury due to cell phone distractions, the data shows.

Read more at KALB.com.

(Photo credit: KATC News)

Published: June 3, 2019

By: Tryfon Boukouvidis, LSU Manship News Service

BATON ROUGE—Louisiana lawmakers are backing efforts to limit the sale of popular vaping pens to minors, tightening hazing laws on campuses, and expanding the state’s current texting while driving laws. A Senate committee approved these bills and sent them to the Senate floor where legislators will cast their vote this week.

A proposal by Rep. Kirk Talbot, R-River Ridge, would increase fines for vendors that sell vapor products to underage individuals. The new fines would go up from $50 to a maximum of $500 for a first violation, and from $100 to a maximum of $750 for a second violation. Any further violation would cost perpetrators up to $1,000.

Current fines for selling vaping products to people under 18 are “too low,” argued Talbot in the Senate Judiciary Committee C, pointing out that the existing law only mandates fines of up to $250 for a third violation and up to $400 for subsequent violations.

“I have two kids in high school and I can tell you the vaping is absolutely just rampant,” Talbot said, adding that the health impacts of these nicotine products are still unclear. “We’re still finding out what vape does to you,” he said.

Sen. Troy Carter, D-New Orleans, amended the proposal to also include tobacco products.

“We’re just still discovering the dangers of vape,” Carter argued, “but we know today the dangers of tobacco.”

House lawmakers struck down a proposal in May to raise Louisiana’s legal smoking age from 18 to 21. The bill was only backed by 24 legislators while 55 voted against it.

The Louisiana Office of Alcohol and Tobacco Control, or ATC, collected in 2018 approximately $200,000 in tobacco fines on products sold to underage individuals, according to data by the Legislative Fiscal Office.

The percentage of adults who report using electronic cigarettes daily or on some days is 2.8 percent, according to a 2018 report by United States Department of Health and Human Services/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Read more in KATC News.

Published: May 31, 2019

By: Lauren Heffker, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE, La. — A proposal that would call for “truth in labeling” of food products, including meat, sailed through the House Agricultural Committee on Thursday. The state’s top agricultural chief and conventional agricultural groups backed the bill, arguing it would protect the state’s farmers and give consumers clear choices.

A similar proposal, which would prohibit companies from labeling their plant-based products as milk, passed the House floor the same day in a 70-27 vote.

“We’re simply saying that what is on the label has to be what is in the product,” Commissioner of Agriculture Mike Strain told committee members. “You cannot manufacture something to sell it using a standard that we know.”

Both labeling bills are sponsored by Sen. Francis Thompson, D-Delhi, who said they aim to protect the state’s meat and dairy industries by identifying the source of food.

Traditionally, agriculture has been one of the state’s economic backbones for decades. But prices for dairy have plummeted and the number of dairy farms in the state has declined rapidly over the last decade. In 2004, Louisiana had over 300 dairy farms, according to The Dairy Alliance. Now the state has around 100.

Supporters argue that the milk labeling bill would help consumers by defining milk as “milk of hooved mammals” and prohibiting plant-based drink manufacturers from marketing almond milk, oat milk and coconut milk as milk.

The bills have received bipartisan support throughout this legislative session.

While opponents of the bill, including plant based food companies, said the proposed law would violate their First Amendment rights, Thompson and Strain said that could be decided through litigation.

Read more in WWL TV.