By Samuel Carter Karlin
BATON ROUGE — The mother of a slain Southern University student led a rally at the Capitol Thursday pleading for justice for her daughter, LaShuntae Benton, and Annette January, who were killed in the shooting last month near LSU.
The two 19-year-old students were killed at The Cottages, an apartment complex, on April 10. BRPD spokesman Sgt. Don Coppola said the investigation is ongoing but declined to say whether investigators had suspects in the killing.
By Justin DiCharia
BATON ROUGE — Fines for texting while driving will skyrocket from $175 to a maximum of $500 fine on a first offense and from $500 to $1,000 for subsequent offenses under a bill overwhelming approved by the House Wednesday night.
By Samuel Carter Karlin
BATON ROUGE — The Louisiana Senate voted 8-25 to reject a bill that would have protected LGBT people from discrimination in the workplace after passionate testimony in support of the bill. None of those opposed spoke or asked questions.
Sen. Troy Carter, D-New Orleans, brought SB436 as a matter of “fairness,” insisting LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender individuals) should receive the same protections as those in the class of “race, religion and creed.”
By Jack Richards
BATON ROUGE — The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has sent a letter to LSU President F. King Alexander urging him to end the practice of a live tiger mascot.
PETA, headquartered in Washington, D.C., became interested when Mike the Tiger’s apparent terminal cancer diagnosis became known over the weekend.
By Justin DiCharia
BATON ROUGE — Two-year-old Juno Roy breathes with the help of an oxygen tank strapped on the side of her stroller. Her parents, Jessica and Brian Roy of Baton Rouge, feed her through a tube, often finding themselves in a hospital hoping a small infection does not turn fatal.
Juno was left at a Louisiana Safe Haven, a state-run facility where a desperate mother can leave her infant if she can’t care for it, no questions asked. She had been born three and half months premature. The Roy family fostered her for a year before officially adopting Juno. They were well aware of the odds against her survival.
Doctors told the family Juno would not make it through the first year, but she defied them all and is nearing her third birthday.
If the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services is underfunded this coming year, Secretary Marketa Garner Walters told the Senate Finance Committee Monday, it will become exponentially harder to find foster care parents for children with severe disabilities and conditions like Juno Roy.
By Jack Richards
BATON ROUGE — The House failed to pass a bill Monday providing regulatory teeth to the internet sales tax law passed during the earlier special session over pleas from small business owners in the Legislature.
House Bill 1121 by Rep. Walt Leger, D-New Orleans, received the approval of 66 members of the 105-member House, but because it raised taxes it required a two-thirds majority, or 70 votes.
By Samuel Carter Karlin
BATON ROUGE — Some House Republicans, wary of Gov. John Bel Edwards’ budget figures and reluctant to raise more taxes, are questioning whether the state truly has a $600 million shortfall, with one legislator estimating the shortfall could be up to half that figure.
House Appropriations Committee chairman Cameron Henry, R-Metairie, believes Edwards’ spending targets — nearly $9 billion in spending — are too high.
By Justin DiCharia
BATON ROUGE — College fee bills are likely to increase to cover an $80 million cut to the LSU and UL system schools around the state, according to system heads.
Higher education system presidents testified before an education-friendly Senate Finance Committee Friday, highlighting the statewide contributions of each university and chastising the eight-year trend of divesting in state universities and colleges.
By Jack Richards
BATON ROUGE — The group of non-legislators given the responsibility of making Louisiana financially stable in the future Friday crafted recommendations for Gov. John Bel Edwards to include in his expected call for another special session that specifically will address the state’s looming budget deficit.
The Task Force on Structural Changes in the Budget and Tax Policy will not have a final report until September, but it drafted preliminary recommendations so the governor can focus the agenda of the special session that he indicates he may call on June 6.
By Justin DiCharia
BATON ROUGE — Louisiana has the highest incarceration rate per capita in the nation with one in 26 residents under correctional control, and Jimmy LeBlanc, head of the state’s prison system, believes the looming $39 million shortage in much needed funding to local and state prisons won’t help change that statistic.
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LSU Manship School Statehouse Bureau 