Category: Uncategorized

Journalists, free speech advocates raise concerns over state bill that would limit access to public records

Posted on by manshipxgr

Published: April 17, 2024

By: Claire Sullivan LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE — Louisianans may soon lose access to great swaths of government records currently made available upon request under the state public records law.

A Senate panel voted 6-2 Wednesday to advance a bill — backed by Gov. Jeff Landry and sponsored by Sen. Heather Cloud, R-Turkey Creek — that would gut public access to information at every level of government.

The proposal, Senate Bill 482, would bar access to “any records reflecting advisory opinions, recommendations and deliberations comprising part of a process by which governmental decisions and policies are formulated.”

Cloud said this would allow government employees to give opinions to decision makers “without fear of later being subject to public ridicule or criticism” and prevent unfinalized information from being disseminated.

Read more at WBRZ.

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New bill calls for limited constitutional convention

Posted on by manshipxgr

Published: April 16, 2024

By: Madison Maronge and Elizabeth White, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE, La. — The Louisiana House Tuesday kicked off discussion of Gov. Jeff Landry’s call for a convention this spring to pare down the state’s Constitution.

HB 800, sponsored by Rep. Beau Beaullieu, R-New Iberia, calls for a limited constitutional convention and was introduced to the House and Governmental Affairs committee. The panel will not vote on the bill until next week.

Beaullieu also introduced amendments and answered committee member’s questions about the purpose and plans for the convention.

Read more at KATC.

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Legislative Update

Posted on by manshipxgr

Published: April 11, 2024

By: Elizabeth White LSU Manship School News Service

Louisiana State Capitol

Photo by: Courtesy Baton Rouge Police Department

By: Elizabeth White LSU Manship School News Service

Posted 4:25 PM, Apr 10, 2024

and last updated 8:12 AM, Apr 11, 2024

BATON ROUGE–Louisiana legislators continued Wednesday to advance conservative priorities, pushing forward bills to limit discussion of gender and sexuality in schools and to stop teachers from using a child’s preferred name or pronouns without parental consent if they differ from the child’s biological sex.

Lawmakers also advanced measures this week to limit bathroom use by biological gender and to provide state money for private school education. Other bills would authorize police officers to arrest migrants who are not in the country legally and prohibit protests outside of an individual’s home.

The House Education Committee voted 9-3 Wednesday to advance House Bill 122, which would prohibit teachers from discussing sexual orientation and gender identity in public schools. This would include teachers discussing their own sexual orientation and facilitating discussions pertaining to sexual orientation and gender identity during classroom instructional time.

Read more at KATC.

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Louisiana lawmakers introduce batch of bills to protect state seafood industry from imports

Posted on by manshipxgr

Published: April 5, 2024

By: Jordyn Wilson

BATON ROUGE – Louisiana lawmakers are considering a batch of bills to safeguard the state’s seafood industry from an influx of foreign shrimp and crawfish and to strengthen safety measures for imported products.

Some bills would increase fees and licensing requirements on dealers bringing in foreign seafood and expand safety testing. Others would require more accurate labeling about where any type of seafood originates and ban the use of foreign seafood in school lunch programs.

The action comes as imports now make up nearly 90% of America’s seafood supply and Louisiana crawfish farmers face a disastrous season due to last summer’s drought and a freeze over the winter.

Read more at WBRZ.

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Bill requires 10 Commandments displayed at schools

Posted on by manshipxgr

Published: April 5, 2024

By: Claire Sullivan and Piper Naudin LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE—The House Education Committee voted 10-3 Thursday to advance a bill to require public schools to display the 10 Commandments.

House Bill 7l, by Rep. Dodie Horton, R-Haughton, is attempting to navigate the traditional legal divide between church and state.

Under the bill, which next goes to the House floor, the commandments would need to be displayed in a format of at least 11-by-4 inches.

Read more at Concordia Sentinel.

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Special Session impact on juveniles

Posted on by manshipxgr

Published: March 1, 2024

By: Jacob Mathews LSU Manship School News Service

Louisiana State Capitol

Photo by: Courtesy John M. Schroder Louisiana State Treasurer

By: By Jacob Mathews LSU Manship School News Service

Posted 10:31 AM, Mar 01, 2024

and last updated 10:31 AM, Mar 01, 2024

BATON ROUGE–-As Louisiana undertakes a massive overhaul of criminal justice laws, one of the most controversial changes is putting more 17-year-olds on trial for crimes as adults. The move backpedals on a measure passed seven years ago that treated teens under 18 as juveniles in most cases.

Anti-crime lawmakers, following the lead of sheriffs, prosecutors, and a newly elected Republican governor, are responding to a spike in juvenile violent crime – simple robbery, battery, carjacking, terrorism, kidnapping, assault and even murder and rape. They and Gov. Jeff Landry say adult gangs have been recruiting teenagers 17 years old and younger to commit crimes for which penalties will be lighter than those for adults.

Opponents argue that juvenile crime rates had been coming down since the “Raise the Age” law was passed in 2016 before rising during the COVID-19 pandemic, and some question whether the new laws will have harmful side-effects given that prosecutors already had leeway to charge juveniles as adults for the worst crimes.

According to reports by the state’s Office of Juvenile Justice, the number of youths serving time had begun easing again last year.

Read more at KATC.

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La. House Committee Approves Methods of Execution Secrecy Bill

Posted on by manshipxgr

Published: February 22, 2024

By: Jordyn Wilson, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE — In a continuing flood of criminal justice legislation, a Louisiana House committee approved a bill that would keep secret the means and methods of execution of a death-row inmate.

The 12-5 vote by the House and Governmental Affairs committee follows action elsewhere in the Capitol on Tuesday that expanded capital punishment to include electrocution and injection of nitrogen hypoxia. The state’s new governor, Republican Gov. Jeff Landry, said he wants to resume capital punishment. He called the state Legislature into a special session on crime until early March.

The governor wants to address a public outcry over shootings, carjackings and violent crimes, and to roll back part of an overhaul of criminal justice measures taken by the Legislature several years ago under former Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat.

Read more at BPT.

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Louisiana House committee tackles crime issues amid protests

Posted on by manshipxgr

Published: February 21, 2024

By: Madison Marong, LSU Manship News Service

BATON ROUGE— Protesters swarmed House hearing rooms Tuesday as a top law enforcement committee passed legislation that would expand capital punishment to include death by nitrogen gas and electrocution. The panel significantly boosted sentences for carjacking and penalties for so-called “rainbow” fentanyl sold to children.

It also tightened parole issues and prisoner rules which drew opposition from groups that aid formerly incarcerated people in voting and civic participation.

Punishment for carjackings and selling fentanyl to children came in a flurry of legislation that swept across the Capitol on Tuesday following a stirring speech the day before from newly-elected Gov. Jeff Landry. 

Landry, a former state Attorney General, ran on a get-tough-on-crime stance that would roll back scores of revisions made under his predecessor, Gov. John Bel Edwards. Chief among Landry’s positions was to restart capital punishment as a deterrent to what has been soaring crime rates in the state’s major cities.

Louisiana has not administered capital punishment by lethal injection since 2010.

Read more at BIZ.

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Legislature: Concealed carry bill advances

Posted on by manshipxgr

Published: February 21, 2024

By: By Elizabeth White, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE – Louisiana lawmakers voted to join 27 other states that allow citizens to carry a concealed handgun without permits or training as a deterrent to rising crime. 

The vote came in committee on a hectic day of legislative action that passed a flurry of anti-crime bills urged by the newly-elected Republican Gov. Jeff Landry who has vowed to take a tough anti-crime stance. 

Tuesday was the second day of a special session focused on crime and law enforcement issues. A number of bills passed senate and house committees and moved on to other law enforcement panels before they will almost-surely go to the full senate and house for final passage.  Landry has said he will sign into law everything that has moved so far to his desk.

Read more at Minden Press-Herald.

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Redistricting map goes to Governor for signature

Posted on by manshipxgr

Published: January 19, 2024

By: Elizabeth White and Claire Sullivan, LSU Manship School News Service

The Legislature on Friday passed the original congressional redistricting map backed by Gov. Jeff Landry after stripping out a House committee’s amendment that would have divided East Baton Rouge Parish into three congressional districts.

The bill now goes to Landry’s desk, along with a separate bill to approve his proposal to switch from open primary elections, in which candidates from all parties compete against each other, to more closed ones run by each party.

Read more at KATC.

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