By Rose Velazquez
BATON ROUGE — Louisiana students, technically as young as kindergarteners, who bring toy guns to school could face criminal penalties under a proposal state lawmakers will consider during a session that begins Monday.
House Bill 43, by Rep. Dodie Horton, R-Haughton, would ban the possession of “imitation firearms, projectiles or ammunition” in Louisiana schools, at school-sponsored events or within 1,000 feet of campuses.
By Rose Velazquez
BATON ROUGE — Rather than facing suffocating fines or the possibility of jail time, Louisiana residents who violate parish ordinances may be sentenced in the alternative to up to 200 hours of community service if House Bill 19 by Rep. Tanner Magee, R-Houma, is approved in the 2017 legislative session.
The current law sets the penalty for those who violate a parish ordinance at a maximum $500 fine and 30 days in a parish jail. HB19 would allow judges to use community service in place of – or in addition to — traditional penalties.
Read the story in The Shreveport Times
By Sarah Gamard and Rose Velazquez
BATON ROUGE — State lawmakers are again aiming to close the pay gap between men and women in Louisiana, something a new poll indicates has wide support among residents.
Louisiana ranks second in the nation for greatest wage gap between men and women, 32 cents less per dollar of wages than men.
By Rose Velazquez
BATON ROUGE — A Houma lawmaker has proposed a measure that would give judges a new option in sentencing people who violate parish ordinances.
Current law sets the penalty at a maximum $500 fine and 30 days in a parish jail.
House Bill 19, by state Rep. Tanner Magee, R-Houma, would allow judges to give a sentence of up to 200 hours of community service in place of – or in addition to — traditional penalties.
By Caitie Burkes
State Rep. Franklin J. Foil, R-Baton Rouge, said he was surprised when he picked up the phone and Gov. John Bel Edwards’ office was on the other end, asking if he would consider sponsoring a bill.
The measure, which Foil would later pre-file as House Bill 79, would prohibit corporal punishment for students with exceptionalities – excluding gifted and talented students — in Louisiana public and charter schools.
“I was surprised that that was even allowed under our law,” Foil said.
By Sarah Gamard
A New Orleans lawmaker wants to exempt tampons and other feminine hygiene products, as well as diapers, from the Louisiana sales tax. But pre-session blowback to Senate Bill 24 is already starting, he says.
State Sen. J.P. Morrell, D-New Orleans, says some males already are arguing against the prefiled proposal as a “special handout” to women, and say it’s only fair their beer and fast food be exempt as well.
A large majority of residents favor criminal justice reform in Louisiana, a new poll finds.
The poll is the third in a series of six, collectively called the 2017 Louisiana Survey, conducted by the Reilly Center for Media & Public Affairs at LSU’s Manship School of Mass Communication.
The results, released today, come as Gov. John Bel Edwards and state lawmakers consider reform measures whose goals include reducing Louisiana’s incarceration rate of 816 prisoners per 100,000 residents, the highest in the nation.
By Rose Velazquez
BATON ROUGE — Lawmakers in a town hall forum at the LSU Law Center Thursday night suggested that higher education’s current monetary vulnerability might be solved by taking its funding process off the perennial legislative chopping block through constitutional changes.
By Sarah Gamard and Caitie Burkes
BATON ROUGE — Although the funding cards have not always being dealt in their favor, the heads of departments of Natural Resources (DNR) and Wildlife and Fisheries (DWF) remain optimistic about their respective fortunes in the forthcoming fiscal year, the House subcommittee on Infrastructure and Resources was told Thursday.
By Sarah Gamard and Caitie Burkes
More than half of Louisiana’s residents favor raising taxes to support transportation infrastructure. The state is in need of federal transportation funds, but recent events show it is unclear when or if the state will get any.
LSU Manship School Statehouse Bureau 