LSU Manship School Statehouse Bureau

Published: April 12, 2023

By: Molly Ryan and Jenna Bridges, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE–The House Appropriations Committee discussed Tuesday expanding the budgets for youth, corrections and public safety services as state officials expressed a need to address employee turnover rates through higher salaries.

Corrections Department Secretary James LeBlanc underscored the stressful, difficult work his staff does and noted that shots have recently been fired at probation officers.

Col. Lamar Davis, superintendent of the Louisiana State Police, said Louisiana is short 166 state troopers. He believes the state needs to make trooper salaries more competitive, citing that Louisiana’s starting pay for troopers is lower than in neighboring states like Mississippi.

“We have some very good, very smart people out there with good hearts, but we have to pay them,” he said.

Read more at Biz Magazine

Published: April 10, 2023

By: Molly Ryan, LSU Manship School News Service

Gov. John Bel Edwards joined lawmakers at the start of the regular session Monday to outline his agenda in his final state of the state address and call on lawmakers to give pay raises of $3,000 to teachers and $1,500 to support workers.

The state has a $1.6 billion surplus due to floods of federal relief money and increased revenue from a temporary 0.45 percent sales tax increase. One of the big debates this session will be whether to raise the state’s spending limit, which will influence how much of that surplus money is spent and where it goes.

During his address, Edwards reflected on his eight years in office, noting he had inherited a $2 billion deficit in 2016 and will leave behind $2 billion in emergency savings for his successor in addition to the $1.6 billion surplus this year.

Edwards also struck a personal tone to advocate again for legislation that he framed as pro-life, including paid family and medical leave, equal pay, exceptions for rape and incest with abortion and an end to the death penalty.

Read more at WRKF

Published: April 5, 2023

By: LSU Manship School News Service

Nine students from LSU’s Manship School of Mass Communication and the
Southern University Law Center won a national investigative reporting prize this week for
stories re-examining the shooting deaths of two Southern students by a sheriff’s deputy in 1972.

The prize–for the best investigative work in 2022 by students at large universities–was awarded
by Investigative Reporters & Editors, the largest organization of professional investigative
reporters and editors.

The four-part series, published last fall, was based on dozens of interviews and nearly 2,700
pages of previously undisclosed FBI documents. It prompted Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards
to apologize to the families of the victims on behalf of the state.

Edwards said he was six years old when the shooting happened and that all he knew about it
came from reading the stories by “a group at LSU who actually did the cold case investigation
and have been working on this to educate people.”

Read more at Bossier-Press Tribune

Published: April 5, 2023

By: Molly Ryan, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE — The Legislature convenes Monday (April 10) for the start of the 2023 session, and lawmakers, blessed with a large budget surplus, are at odds about whether they should raise the state’s spending limit.

Thanks to an influx of federal dollars from hurricane and pandemic relief and an increase in revenue from a temporary 0.45 of a penny sales tax hike, the state is expected to have a $1.6 billion surplus, and the fight over the expenditure limit will greatly influence how much of that money is spent.

The state constitution requires a portion of the surplus to go into a rainy day fund and other savings, leaving the Legislature with about $500 million in additional spending power without exceeding the cap.

Sen. Gerald Boudreaux, D-Lafayette, chairman of the Senate Democratic Caucus, generally agreed with Cortez, noting that some parameters should be in place for lawmakers to raise the expenditure limit.

Read more at Verite News

Published: March 27, 2023

By: Jenna Bridges, LSU Manship News Service

State Sen. Sharon Hewitt plans to author a bill that would allow members of the disabled community to participate remotely in state committee and board meetings.

A Senate task force on remote operations of public entities voted Friday to suggest guidelines for how statewide bodies can hold their meetings remotely.

The guidelines aim to provide flexibility for board and commission members from all over the state who must travel to meet in person and to accommodate members of the disabled community so they can participate in government, according Hewitt, a Republican from Slidell who is running for governor.

Read more at Louisiana Illuminator

Published: March 8, 2023

By: Claire Sullivan and Gabby Jimenez | LSU Manship School News Service

Tony Plohetski, an Austin American-Statesman reporter who spent weeks covering the shooting in Uvalde, Texas, got a late-night call that was a turning point in the massacre’s coverage.

“Come get the video,” the call’s source told him.

The gut-wrenching, 77-minute security camera footage showed law enforcement officers standing idly by for over an hour while a gunman fired shots in a closed elementary school classroom.

Plohetski and his top editor, Manny Garcia, spoke to students at LSU’s Manship School of Mass Communication on Monday about the video’s consequences and what it was like to cover one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history. The gunman killed 19 children and two teachers.

Read more at the Reveille

Published: March 1, 2023

By: Gabby Jimenez, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE, La. (LSU Manship School News Service) – The Task Force on State Recognition of Indian Tribes met Wednesday, March 1, for the last time without establishing any set criteria for recognizing tribes in Louisiana.

House Bill 660 established the Native American Commission in 2018 to promote Native American culture and identify the needs facing that community. One member from each of the 15 tribes already recognized serves on the commission.

Part of the commission’s responsibility includes establishing clear criteria for tribes seeking formal state recognition by the Legislature.

The task force was formed during the 2022 legislative session to look further into the issue. Senate Resolution 198 says the task force was scheduled to end by March 1, 2023.

Read more at KPLC

Published: Feb. 17, 2023

By: Molly Ryan and Claire Sullivan, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE − Gov. John Bel Edwards proposed a budget Friday that includes a $2,000 pay raise for K-12 teachers that could climb to $3,000 if more money becomes available.

He also called for a $1,000 pay raise for support workers at schools.

Those basic raises would cost the state about $200 million each year. Teachers could receive the additional $1,000 raise, bringing the total increase to $3,000, if the state’s Revenue Estimating Conference increases its revenue projections again in May.

Commissioner of Administration Jay Dardenne said that would finally push teacher salaries in Louisiana to the Southern regional average and cost an additional $74 million annually.

In unveiling his final budget proposal, Edwards touted his sixth year in a budget surplus after inheriting a $2 billion deficit in his first term. Edwards’ second term ends in January.

Read more at The Daily Advertiser

Published: Feb. 10, 2023

By: Claire Sullivan and Gabby Jimenez, LSU Manship School News Service

Ashley Parker was enjoying sleeping in on a fall Saturday in 2019, her husband tending to their young daughter. Then her phone started vibrating nonstop.

President Donald Trump had tweeted out that Parker and her Washington Post colleague were “nasty lightweight reporters” who “shouldn’t even be allowed on the grounds of the White House because their reporting is so “DISGUSTING & FAKE.”

She had earned what political rivals and many covering Trump often received–a dismissive nickname. She kept her head down and kept working.

Parker, a senior national political correspondent at the Post, and her husband, Michael C. Bender, an author and White House correspondent for The New York Times, visited the LSU Manship School of Mass Communication Thursday to share their experiences as journalists covering Trump during his attacks on the press. 

Read more at the Lafourche Gazette

Published: Feb. 03, 2023

By: Claire Sullivan, LSU Manship School News Service

The Legislature approved bills on Friday to spend up to $45 million to lure home insurers back to the state.

The next stop is Gov. John Bel Edwards’ desk. The governor called the special session at the heeding of the state insurance commissioner and is expected to sign both bills into law—one to appropriate the funds for the Insure Louisiana Incentive Program and the other to prevent insolvent or bankrupt companies from receiving any of the money.

House Bill 1 to appropriate the funds passed the Senate 37-1 and the House 91-8. House Bill 2 to allow only solvent companies to receive the funds passed the Senate unanimously Friday after passing the House on Thursday.

Insurance companies will apply for grants, which will range from $2 million to $10 million. The companies will be required to match the state funds dollar for dollar, and they will have to remain in the state for at least five years or to return the money.

The plan is modeled after an incentive fund created in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005.

The urgency of the insurance crisis drove legislators to address the issue this week instead of waiting until the regular legislative session begins on April 10.

Read more at WRKF