By D.B. Narveson
BATON ROUGE — The House of Representatives unanimously passed measures Thursday sponsored by Rep. Lance Harris, R-Alexandria, to put tighter limits on registered sex offenders and to expand the definition of a hate crime.
By Quint Forgey
By Justin DiCharia
BATON ROUGE – A West Monroe lawmaker Thursday pulled from consideration his bill banning tobacco products on public and private school property after Senate Education Committee members expressed a desire to keep the current designated smoking zones as they are.
By Justin DiCharia
BATON ROUGE — Legislation to halt discrimination against employees in the public and private workplace based on sexual orientation and gender identity passed through the Senate Labor Committee following a switched votes by a Democratic senator.
By Quint Forgey
BATON ROUGE — A measure aimed at streamlining the governance of Louisiana’s higher education by merging its four management boards and the overarching Board of Regents into one new governing body — the Louisiana Postsecondary Education Board of Trustees — was effectively killed by one vote in the House Education Committee on Wednesday.
By Justin DiCharia
BATON ROUGE — Former Attorney General Buddy Caldwell testified Wednesday against a bill prohibiting justices of the peace from issuing felony warrants unless all other judges within their district had been contacted first.
By Michael Tarver
BATON ROUGE – A bill that would triple the time a woman must wait before getting an abortion passed through the Senate Health and Welfare Committee, but not without heavy debate.
By Michael Tarver
BATON ROUGE — The Louisiana House Government Affairs Committee passed a bill Wednesday defining the restrictions of surrogate pregnancies and detailing the process by which a woman can legally carry a child for another couple.
House Bill 1102 by Rep. Stuart Bishop, R-Lafayette, coasted through the committee without opposition though not without public opposition and advances to the full House for debate.
By Noah Bryant Ballard
BATON ROUGE — Louisiana’s LGBT community will have to wait a little longer for the House of Representatives to consider legislation aiming to protect them from discrimination.
Scheduled Monday to consider two anti-discrimination bills, the House Civil Law Committee failed to hear bills by Rep. Pat Smith, D-Baton Rouge, and Rep. Joseph Bouie, D-New Orleans, who voluntarily pulled their respective bills, HB 501 and HB 925, after sensing they didn’t have sufficient committee support to get the measures to the House floor for debate.
By Michael Tarver
BATON ROUGE — A bill by Sen. Mack White, Jr., R-Baton Rouge, allowing K-12 employers to opt out of the Teachers’ Retirement System of Louisiana failed to gain Senate Retirement Committee approval Monday. It appears dead for the session.
LSU Manship School Statehouse Bureau 