By Devon Sanders
A Senate committee on Tuesday approved a bill that would allow punitive damages for negligence in lawsuits over hazing deaths, potentially holding universities liable for big damage awards.
Read the story in The Daily Advertiser.
By Paul Braun
A Senate committee approved bills that would loosen regulation of the state’s 15 riverboat casinos, allowing them to expand 1,200 feet onto the shore and add more gaming tables and slot machines.
Read the story in KALB/kalb.com.
By Drew White
It may be the ultimate irony. A financial transparency website, designed to bring accountability to government spending has been delayed.
Because it costs too much.
Read the story in Bossier Now.
By Drew White and Ashley Wolf
The state Agriculture Commissioner said on Monday that the LSU AgCenter expects to start cloning cannabis from larger “mother” plants in June to create medical marijuana.
Read the story in The Daily Advertiser.
By Drew White
State Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon cautioned that a proposal by President Donald Trump to allow the purchase of health insurance policies across state lines could be “catastrophic” for some Louisiana residents unless the state has the authority to regulate the carriers.
Republican U.S. senators filed a bill Monday (March 19) that would require the federal Department of Health and Human Services to issue regulations allowing insurers to sell plans across state lines.
Read the story in The Times-Picayune/nola.com.
By Joby Richard
A joint legislative subcommittee is trying to free up $800 million of the several billion dollars in state spending that is set by law and cannot be adjusted in the annual budget process.
Read the story in The Biz.
(Photo Credit: Thinkstock)
Published: March 16, 2018
By: Brianna Jones-Williams, Martha Ramirez, LSU Manship School News Service
BATON ROUGE — Just five days after the tragic Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, police in Thibodaux received a tip that a 17-year-old student had put together a list of schoolmates he wanted to kill with a shotgun.
A school administrator reported on Feb. 19 that Keith Usea previously had threatened students and that he had created the kill list. Detectives learned that another 17-year-old student, Mason Dupre, was planning to help Usea, and both are now being held in jail on terrorizing charges.
The attack in Florida, in which a 19-year-old killed 17 students, has set off student protests and a national debate about whether to ban assault weapons and raise the minimum age for buying a gun. President Donald Trump has talked about raising the age requirement from 18 to 21 but has not called on Congress to do so. He also supports arming teachers.
But no Louisiana officials have called for re-examining the state’s fairly lax laws for simply possessing a gun. And some parents say it is time to look at that as well.
Louisiana is one of only seven states that allow 17-year-olds to possess handguns, and the state does not have a minimum age to possess shotguns and rifles.
Forty-three states do not allow minors to possess or purchase handguns under the age of 18, unless, in some states, their parents give written consent. Nineteen of those states do not allow anyone under 18 without parental consent to possess rifles or shotguns.
Al Carter, the father of a girl who was on Usea’s kill list, said he believes that the minimum age for all firearms including shotguns and rifles should be 21.
“We are saying that teenagers can have a gun but not drink beer because it’s dangerous and not safe,” said Katie Portier, a Houma mother who founded the Terrebonne Safe Schools Coalition. “I think that says a lot.”
Portier believes that the Louisiana Legislature needs to take a hard look at age limits, accessibility to rapid-fire guns, and background checks.
In Louisiana, the minimum age is 18 to purchase tobacco and 21 to buy alcohol or gamble.
Though Louisiana law does prohibit selling firearms to anyone who is under the age of 18, 17-year-olds can still legally possess one as long as they do not purchase it themselves. Seventeen-year-olds also can openly carry guns in Louisiana without a permit.
Many can buy them “on the black market, from friends or someone buys the gun for them,” according to the Gun Violence Archive, a non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C., that compiles data on gun-related violence.
The Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, which studies gun violence and is based in San Francisco, says it is common practice to set legal ages for activities that require maturity, such as voting, driving and drinking alcohol.
“Purchasing and possessing a firearm necessitate the same, or greater ability to act responsibly,” the group says on its website.
Read more at WWLTV.com.
By Devon Sanders
Louisianans are growing more disillusioned with state government, according to a survey released Thursday (March 15) by Louisiana State University’s Public Policy Research Lab
Results of the 2018 Louisiana Survey show that overall, most citizens have little confidence in Gov. John Bel Edwards and the Legislature to work past a partisan divide. They also do not believe that the government can address the state’s most important issues, and they do not trust state government in general.
Read the story in The Times-Picayune/nola.com.
By Paul Braun
The state parole board voted Thursday to deny a temporary medical furlough Thursday to one of the first prisoners to be considered since a law creating the program took effect in November.
Read the story in The Town Talk.
By Kaylee Poche
The House Labor and Industrial Relations Committee voted 6-4 to approve a bill that would prevent employers from including clauses in employment contracts that require non-criminal sexual harassment claims be settled outside the courtroom.
Read the story in The Bossier Press-Tribune.
LSU Manship School Statehouse Bureau 