By Sheridan Wall, LSU Daily Reveille
After one student said she was from Tulsa, Oklahoma, James Carville interrupted first-class introduction traditions with what he called the “anthem of socialist America,” Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land.”
Read the story in The Daily Advertiser.
By Joby Richard
While a legislative task force is considering a proposal to reduce funding for some TOPS scholarships, it also is being asked to expand the program in other ways.
One task force member, Sen. Mack “Bodi” White Jr., R-Baton Rouge, would like to let students at community and technical colleges keep their scholarships if they transfer to four-year universities. And Sen. Wesley Bishop, D-New Orleans, says the state should give four-year students who initially fail to qualify for TOPS a second chance if they do well in their first two years in college.
Read the story in The News Star.
By Devon Sanders
Although Louisiana has a website ranked among the nation’s best in providing access to spending data, Republican lawmakers said on Tuesday that they would like to improve it as part of negotiations to solve the state’s impending budget shortfall.
Read the story in the Daily Advertiser.
By Joby Richard
Sen. Dan Morrish received criticism at Wednesday’s TOPS Task Force meeting over his proposals to reduce awards to lower-performing students and increasing stipends for higher-performing ones.
Read the story in the Daily Advertiser.
By Natalie Anderson and Kaylee Poche
House Speaker Taylor Barras on Tuesday proposed new spending caps and other cost-saving measures that the Republicans would like to couple with any revenue-raising measures that Gov. John Bel Edwards seeks to deal with a looming state budget shortfall.
Read the story in the Daily Advertiser.
By Paul Braun
Members of a task force convened to streamline Louisiana’s criminal code voted Tuesday to recommend that the Legislature introduce a felony class system that would place more than 660 felonies into eight categories and provide more consistent sentencing.
Read the story in The Town Talk.
Katie Gagliano and Sarah Gamard
Louisiana House Speaker Taylor Barras told Gov. John Bel Edwards’ office Monday that Republican lawmakers would offer several cost-saving proposals on Tuesday and identify areas for possibly raising state revenue on Friday, aides to the governor said Monday.
Read the story in bestofneworleans.com/Gambit.
By LSU Manship News Service
Which word should the state use to confiscate guns from people convicted of domestic violence without offending gun users and their powerful lobbyists?
That is a question with which the state Domestic Violence Prevention Commission has been struggling, and it has now made its choice: relinquishment.
The commission has decided to primarily use that word in its upcoming recommendations on how the state could better enforce a 2014 law requiring domestic-violence offenders to give up their guns.
Read the story in NOLA.com/The Times-Picayune.
By Joby Richard
Three-fourths of students with disabilities who finished high school in 2017 earned diplomas through the TOPS University Pathway and qualified to attend four-year universities, a new study by the state Education Department has found.
Read the story in the Daily Advertiser.
By Katie Gagliano and Sarah Gamard
As the window for calling a special session tightens, Gov. John Bel Edwards and House Republican leaders still are fencing over the details of his doomsday budget proposal and whether the Republicans will come up with an alternative plan next week.
Read the story in bestofneworleans.com/Gambit.
LSU Manship School Statehouse Bureau 