Author: manshipxgr

Kaylee Poche and Devon Sanders

A bill that originally allowed teachers to fully participate in student-initiated prayer underwent major changes limiting what teachers can do before passing unanimously in the House Wednesday.

An amendment offered by Rep. Rick Edmonds, R-Baton Rouge, limited teachers’ participation to only being allowed to bow their heads during prayer. The amendment, which passed 68-21, also eliminated a requirement for parents to provide permission slips.

“As long as there are geometry and algebra tests in schools, there will be prayer in schools,” said Rep. Robert Shadoin, R-Ruston, who presented the bill on behalf of Sen. Ryan Gatti, R-Bossier City. “You cannot take away prayer in schools.”

The House erupted in applause.

Read the full story in Fox 8.

Drew White

A day after the House voted overwhelmingly to ban abortions after 15 weeks of conception, two other abortion-restrictive measures advanced unanimously Wednesday on the House floor.

One bill aims to include the termination of pregnancy by illegal interference and feticide as “crimes of violence” under Louisiana state law.

The measure would prohibit the physical force or threats of violence with the intent to compel a pregnant woman to undergo an abortion against her will.

Under the proposed law, an individual could face up to five years of imprisonment and a $5,000 fine for coercing an abortion. The bill heads back to the Senate for consideration of changes made in the House.

Read full story in The Donaldsonville Chief.

Drew White and Paul Braun

State Rep. Stuart Bishop, R-Lafayette, issued an apology to his fellow lawmakers Wednesday morning for engaging in a fist fight with another state legislator after a report from The News Star surfaced about the incident.

Bishop said that he and State Sen. Norby Chabert, R-Houma, “had a disagreement and it got physical.” The fight reportedly took place in a downtown Baton Rouge bar Tuesday night because the two had a dispute over legislation. Bishop took to the House floor on personal privilege to comment on the altercation.

“I truly apologize if I did anything to upset y’all or make y’all look bad because the integrity of this body is one thing that I cherish and one thing I hold very dear,” Bishop said. “I feel like it was unbecoming of a gentleman and unbecoming for a member of this House,” Bishop added.

Read the full story in WRKF.

Drew White and Paul Braun

Louisiana children may begin wearing bulletproof backpacks to class soon.

The House voted 82-6 Tuesday to allow students to wear body armor on school grounds or buses. Current Louisiana law prohibits body armor on school property.

All local representatives – Beryl Amedee, R-Houma, Truck Gisclair, D-Larose, Tanner Magee, R-Houma, Dee Richard, a Thibodaux independent, and Jerome Zeringue, R-Houma – voted in favor of the bill.

The bill previously cleared the Senate with overwhelming support. Ballistic tests indicate that the backpacks could stop shots from handguns and shotguns but not bullets from AR-15s and other high-powered rifles.

Read the full story in Houma Today.

 

Devon Sanders and Kaylee Poche

With little debate, the Louisiana House voted 70-9 today to prohibit abortion later than 15 weeks after conception.

If the bill becomes law, Louisiana would have one of the most stringent abortion laws in the country.

Sen. John Milkovich, D-Shreveport, authored the bill. Milkovich has said his ultimate goal is to ban abortions in Louisiana altogether.

While the bill was not heavily discussed on the House floor, more deliberation had occured in the House Administration of Criminal Justice Committee over potential litigation costs. But Milkovich argued that the costs would be worthwhile.

“”I cannot think of a better expenditure of money that Louisiana could make than to protect the life of the unborn,” Milkovich said.

Read the full story in The Gambit Weekly.

Paul Braun

After votes in both the House and the Senate this week, a proposed constitutional amendment has cleared the Legislature, and voters will have a chance to repeal a Jim Crow-era law that allows non-unanimous juries in many felony trials.

The bill would no longer allow convictions based on votes by 10 of 12 jurors and would require unanimous verdicts for all felony convictions. It was originally opposed by the state’s powerful district attorneys but gained bipartisan support as it moved through the Legislature.

Louisiana and Oregon are the only two states that allow non-unanimous verdicts in jury trials.

Before the Senate voted 28-7 on Tuesday to accept the amendments made by the House, Sen. J.P. Morrell, D-New Orleans and the author of the bill, thanked his fellow legislators for the bipartisan support.

Read the full story in KALB.

Drew White

An anti-bullying bill that would have permitted public school officials to use physical force against students taking part in bullying was shelved Tuesday in the House Education Committee.

The unsuccessful bill, authored by Sen. John Milkovich, D-Shreveport, aimed to strengthen current anti-bullying procedures and give additional protection to victims to prevent suicides by children who are victims of bullying.

“It’s time for us to get back to discipline, respect, values, and some teeth in our anti-bullying law so that next year we do not have pictures of other children that are lying in the coffin,” Milkovich said.

“Children are bullied over a period of time, the complaints are made to the school system over and over and the school system essentially does nothing,” he added.

Read the full article in The Daily Comet.

Kaylee Poche and Devon Sanders

The Louisiana Senate passed the House’s proposed budget 27 to 10 on Tuesday with several amendments that shifted major cuts to fall on governmental agencies rather than health care.

However, many senators questioned the point of even passing a budget when it may not go into effect if revenue is raised during the special session starting next week. Some said that passing the budget would give false hope to Louisiana residents that the state’s budget problems were over.

“I beg you, do not give the public false hope,” Sen. Karen Carter Peterson, D-New Orleans, said. “Do not pass this bill. We’re coming back anyway. Let’s do it right and not create this farce.”

The Senate budget proposes cuts of 24 percent to most state agencies and 30 percent to TOPS funding, while fully funding health care priorities. The Republican-led House had passed a budget that would cut TOPS by 20 percent and slash state spending on health care.

Read the full article in The Ouachita Citizen.

Devon Sanders

Two bills to expand TOPS eligibility that had been approved by the Senate failed Wednesday in the House Appropriations Committee.

The first bill, authored by Sen. Wesley Bishop, D-New Orleans, would have created the TOPS Second Chance Award for students who did not reach the ACT requirement to obtain a scholarship in high school. If they then maintained a 3.2 grade point average in their first two years in college, the award would have funded their final two years.

The bill failed 11-7. All votes against the bill came from Republicans.

The second bill, by Sen. Bodi White, R-Baton Rouge, introduced TOPS-Tech 2Plus2 Award. It would have applied to students who obtained a TOPS Tech Award, which provides tuition for a two-year associate degree program, and who wanted to continue their education at a four-year university.

Read the full story in The Daily Advertiser.

Drew White

Although texting while driving is illegal, law enforcement officers face difficulties in pulling over distracted drivers. A bill passed by a Senate committee Thursday would make it easier for police to issue citations by expanding the list of prohibited cellular activities, like taking “selfies” and checking social media sites, in an attempt to decrease traffic accidents.

Law-enforcement authorities say that under current law, they cannot ticket drivers who insist that they were using their phones for something other than texting.

So under the bill, simply holding a device in either or both hands would be against the law at the start of next year.

Read the full story in WWL-TV.