LSU Manship School Statehouse Bureau

Published: May 11, 2021

By:  Emily Wood | LSU Manship School News Service

The Louisiana House Appropriations Committee advanced a bill Tuesday that would create the Rural Development Fund to support the socioeconomic well-being of the state’s rural population through better health, education and infrastructure.

Funding for the program would come from the sale of general obligation bonds, and authority to spend the money would be given to the state Office of Rural Development.

“Rural areas in Louisiana are losing population. We don’t have the job market, and we are also losing employment to Mississippi,” said House Bill 622 sponsor Rep. Francis Thompson, D-Delhi. “We have to develop or revitalize our rural areas if we want to be productive.”

Thompson said residents of metropolitan areas can look at this as a help for them, too, because people with better jobs in rural areas look to move to the more urban areas so their children can go to better schools, universities and community colleges.

HB 622 would give the director of the Office of Rural Development authority to hire a regional director in each of the eight regional planning commission districts of the state.

Thompson said that everyone in the state would be represented by an economic development expert. He said each director would receive about $60,000 a year, and each would come from the jurisdiction they would be representing.

Read more at The Advocate

Published: May 12, 2021

By: Kathleen Peppo | LSU Manship School News Service

Legislation to change the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse from 10 years to 35 years passed with without dissent in the Louisiana House Tuesday.

State Rep. Jason Hughes, D-New Orleans, says he brought House Bill 492 on behalf of every victim and survivor of child sexual abuse.

The bill will go to the Senate for further debate after passing 102-0 in the House.

According to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, the largest anti-sexual violence organization in the country, a child is sexually assaulted every nine minutes. Only 5 in every 1,000 perpetrators, however, will be imprisoned.

National Child Protective Services found strong evidence between 2009 and 2013 that about 63,000 children per year were victims of sexual abuse.

Hughes said the average age at which victims of child abuse come forward about their trauma is 52.

HB492 would change the oldest age at which a victim can come forward and get justice from 28 to 53, extending the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse to one year past the average age at which victims report abuse.

Rep. John Stefanksi, R-Crowley, asked why the bill does not eliminate the statute of limitations entirely, ensuring victims a chance for justice regardless of age.

Read more at The Advocate

Published: May 12, 2021

By: Kathleen Peppo | LSU Manship News Service

BATON ROUGE — The House passed a bill 55-44 Tuesday to require any school bus entering the school system in 2023 or after to have seat belts for passengers.

Rep. Robby Carter, D-Amite, said he brought the bill because he knows that the state will not be able to appropriate the funds to require seat belts for passengers in all school buses retroactively.

Carter brought a successful bill in 2004 to require seat belts in school buses, but he did not find a way to fund that bill. Now, 17 years later, he hopes to pass legislation that will actually make the change he meant to make earlier in his career.

The original bill would have required that every school bus already in the school system in 2004 have seat belts installed and that every school bus added to the system have seatbelts before entering. A legislative note on the 2004 bill estimated the cost at about $34 million, according to Carter.

“I’m a realist,” Carter said, noting that he knew it was hardly feasible to put that much money toward school bus seat belts.

The current bill is a compromise by which no buses must be retroactively fitted for seat belts, and seat belts will be phased in as new buses enter the school system beginning Jan. 1, 2023.

Read more at News Star

Published: May 10, 2021

By: Ryan Nelsen | LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE, La. – An attempt to match Louisiana and federal laws on housing discrimination based over sexual orientation or gender identity failed Monday.

Rep. Aimee Freeman, D- New Orleans, said her bill, HB282, would have eliminated discrimination in housing sales and rentals to members of the LGBTQ community. An initial vote found the bill losing 7-4 in the House Commerce Committee before Freeman voluntarily deferred it.

Maxwell Ciardullo, the director of policy at the Louisiana Fair Housing Action Center, testified with Freeman on the importance of aligning state and federal laws.

“Someone might read our laws and think they could lawfully choose to discriminate against someone based on their gender identity issues and not to sell their home to them,” he said.

Rep. Edmond Jordan, D-Baton Rouge, an attorney, said the state could violate federal laws if the protected classes did not expand to include LGBTQ members.

Read more at KALB

Published: May 10, 2021

By: Allison Kadlubar, Bailee Hoggatt and Ezekiel Robinson | LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE (WVUE) – Jessica Tilson spent many Sunday mornings in the early 1980s playing outside with her white friends under the shady oak trees in front of the fleur-de-lis stained glass windows of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in Maringouin. But as soon as the church bells rang, they parted.

“When it was time to go into the church, it was time to split up,” Tilson said.

The church has a main entrance with double doors, but members typically enter through separate doors on the sides of the building – to the left for Black members, to the right for white members. Once inside, Black and white members sit on opposite sides of the sanctuary to worship in front of one altar – even though Tilson said the church abandoned formal segregation in the 1980s.

Immaculate Heart of Mary Cemetery also divides graves by skin color on the left and right sides of the main pathway mirroring the church practices. The right side presents a spacious, organized pattern of granite and marble tombstones. The left side is crowded and scattered as many present-day graves are layered on top of people who, in life, were enslaved.

“By it being a small town, the Blacks are related, and the whites are related,” said Tilson, now in her 30s. “It’s only natural that all of the Blacks would be on one side, and all of the whites would be on the other side. We still practice that to this day.”

Louisiana cemeteries no longer enforce racial segregation. But customs and practices remain, ensuring that many cemeteries throughout the state are still divided by race. Directors, managers and patrons of cemeteries statewide said that while the cemeteries do not reject the burial of anyone based on race, their plots do consist primarily of one skin color.

The exact number of cemeteries still practicing similar racial customs as those enforced in the Jim-Crow era is unknown. The Louisiana Cemetery Board has certified about 2,000 cemeteries across the state.

Read more at Daily Advertiser

Published: May 7, 2021

By: Matthew Bennett | LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE — Amid lifted mask mandates, businesses re-openings and a barrage of economic recovery proposals in the Legislature, Louisianans may soon find some new changes to the history of the state itself. 

The House Judiciary Committee passed bills Thursday to establish a new state motto and to name “Southern Nights,” a song written by the late New Orleans music legend Allen Toussaint, as the fifth state song. 

Rep. Richard Nelson, R-Mandeville, brought up HB17, which proposes to change the state motto from “Union, Justice, Confidence,” to “We live and die for those we love.” 

Nelson said there was never a statute passed to establish the old motto, and that it was time to make official something that hit closer to home for Louisiana residents. 

“I think this motto is much more indicative of who we are as a people, what we believe and stand for as a people, and what sets us apart from everywhere else,” Nelson said. 

It was made clear that this was not a random phrase penned by Nelson either, as committee members pointed out that two iterations of the new motto appear on Louisiana law licenses and the walls of the Louisiana State Capitol. 

The representative also said he felt the old motto of “Union, Justice, Confidence” was a “rip-off” of Georgia’s state motto, “Wisdom, Justice, & Moderation,” which was established in 1776 when Georgia became the 13th U.S. colony. 

Read more at Daily Advertiser

Published: May 7, 2021

By: Emily Wood | LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE–A bill to allow cameras in special education classrooms if parents or legal guardians request them is headed to the Senate floor.

Sen. Franklin Foil, R-Baton Rouge, the author of Senate Bill 86, said he brought the bill forward on behalf of the Louisiana Developmental Disabilities Council and concerned parents.

The bill, which was approved by the Senate Education Committee Thursday, would require public and charter schools to create policies for the implementation of video and audio in special education classrooms.

The cameras would not be allowed near restrooms or anywhere where a child might be unclothed.

Dr. Mary Elizabeth Christian, a physician in Baton Rouge and the mother of a 21-year-old with autism, epilepsy and neuromuscular disorder, recounted her daughter’s experience with a school in East Baton Rouge Parish.

“I will never forget the day when we were in an individualized education planning meeting for my daughter, and the principal proudly told us that Grace was making social progress because they were not having to strap her down nearly as often as they had in the past,” said Christian.

Christian went on to advocate for the bill, stating that it will protect students who cannot speak for themselves, who are vulnerable, and who reside in classrooms that are isolated without windows.

Read more at brproud.com

Published: May 7, 2021

By: Ryan Nelsen | LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE — A bill banning employers from discriminating against natural hairstyles advanced through a House committee Thursday, even though four Republicans objected to it.

The bill, written by state Sen. Troy Carter, a Democrat from New Orleans who was recently elected to the U.S. Congress, adds natural hair to the traits Louisiana companies cannot discriminate against when hiring. The House Labor Committee approved the bill in a 7-4 vote.

“The issue of natural hair and descendants who are of African American descent particularly, who opt to wear their hair natural, non-permed and without chemicals should be able to do that,” said Carter.

The bill had passed 8-0 in a Senate committee and continued its success in the full Senate, passing 31-0.

Carter said the bill does not interfere with employers having requirements for hair length or facial hair, citing that firefighters need shorter hair and that some jobs prohibit facial hair on men.

“If there are rules that are in place that govern all hair, it just can’t distinguish or discriminate against someone because of the texture,” said Carter.

Another worry from critics on the panel was that business owners would be confused on what is a natural hairstyle. The committee used examples of audience and panel members to demonstrate what the bill was describing.

The four Republicans who voted against the bill were Reps. Beryl Amedée of Houma, Valarie Hodges of Denham Springs, Raymond Crews of Bossier City and Larry Frieman of Abita Springs.

Every Democrat in the committee voted favorably as well as three Republican representatives–Michael Echols of Monroe, Dodie Horton of Haughton and Charles Owen of Rosepine.

Rep. Tammy Phelps, D-Shreveport, presented the bill alongside Carter and will continue as co-author as Carter transitions to the U.S. House. Phelps aided Carter in explaining that the bill was to protect hairstyles including natural, braids, locks and twists.

Read more at brproud.com

Published: May 5, 2021

By: Matthew Bennett | LSU Manship School News Service

“It’s the flu to the 12th power,” remarked Ivory Payne, a Baton Rouge publisher who is urging Black Louisianans to get COVID-19 vaccines.

“I couldn’t breathe,” Payne said, describing his own experience with the virus in early February. “I think the shortness of breath was the worst thing. It was a terrible experience.”

After his doctors told him to go home and quarantine for 14 days, Payne, 60, found that his fight against the respiratory illness had just begun. He said that after a difficult two weeks in isolation, his condition only got worse.

Payne described a litany of troubling COVID-19 symptoms, including not being able to smell or taste, body aches that prevented him from lifting everyday items and nausea. He spent three distressed weeks in the hospital, where he was forced to consider his chances of survival.

Payne is doing better now, but still has some fatigue as he cautiously returns to work as publisher of the BR Weekly Press, a newspaper for the Black community. His takeaway from his experience is the importance of vaccinations.

He wishes he had been eligible for a vaccine before he was hit by the virus, and he wants to urge Black residents to trust in the safety of COVID-19 vaccines.

“I believe the African-American community has been hit the hardest, because of poor health care,” Payne said. “And just lack of education about the vaccine and the illness itself.”

‘Everyone has to be speaking the same message’

As of April 26, Blacks accounted for 28% of COVID-19 vaccinations in Louisiana, while making up 32% of the population, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. Whites accounted for 61% of vaccinations, while representing 62% of the population.

Notably, Black residents make up an alarming 39% of deaths due to COVID-19 in the state.

Read more at Leesville Daily Leader

Published: May 4, 2021

By: Ryan Nelsen | LSU Manship School News Service

FanDuel, the giant wagering platform, confirmed it is on track to provide fantasy sports gambling in Louisiana by the beginning of this year’s football season.

Stacie Stern, governmental affairs director at FanDuel, said in an interview that FanDuel is working with Louisiana Gaming Board and the state police to launch its product.

Two companies have applied to provide fantasy sports contests, according to Maj. Chuck McNeal of the Louisiana State Police Gaming Enforcement Division, who says both entities will be operational soon. 

“It will definitely happen before the fall,” said McNeal, “as long as my investigators are getting all the documentation and paperwork they need.”

In 2018, voters in 47 parishes approved daily fantasy games in which users create a fictional roster of players and tally their statistics against other players’ teams for prize money. The games can be played on mobile phones or computers. The state will tax the operators’ net gambling revenue at 8%. 

Louisiana was one of only seven states that did not allow fantasy sports betting in 2020. People in the 17 parishes that did not vote in favor will not be able to compete within parish lines.

“Getting the law changed was a really big step for us,” said Stern. “It’s definitely a big sport-fan state, so we’re excited to launch our product.”

Read more at The West Side Journal