State

Legislative wrapup

TOPS funding bill deferred By Katie Gagliano Manship School News Service BATON ROUGE — A measure to ensure consistent funding for the TOPS scholarship program was voluntarily deferred in a House Appropriations Committee Tuesday over concerns about diverting monies from the state’s general fund,...

House decides schools rule on corporal punishment

Louisiana lawmakers in the House determined Monday that local schools, not the state, should decide whether to spank or subject students to other forms of physical punishment. They rejected Monday 34-61 House Bill 497 by Rep.

Stripper age minimum stays 18

Sen. Ronnie Johns, R-Lake Charles, moved his Senate Bill 144, through the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday aims to protect young women from human trafficking by prohibiting strippers under the age of 18, three years younger than what he wanted. The tweaks, authored by Sen. J.P.

Demonstrators arrive to support monument bills

Demonstrators waved Confederate flags outside the Louisiana State Capitol Thursday in protest of New Orleans’ contentious decision to replace four monuments in his city representing Confederate leaders and in support of three bills before the Legislature that aim to protect those monuments.

House passes GOP budget funding TOPS, cutting money for health

House passes GOP budget funding TOPS, cutting money for health By William Taylor Potter and Matt Houston Manship School News Service BATON ROUGE – The GOP budget – that called for full TOPS funding and a $235 million cut from the Department of Health’s funding – passed the House relatively...

Bill to protect campus free speech advances

A House Education Committee recommended to the full House on Tuesday a bill that would protect free expression on college campuses by requiring the establishment of an official university policy affirming free expression and quashing barriers to free speech. House Bill 269 by Rep.

Movie exemptions may be revised

A set of bills aiming to change entertainment industry tax exemptions and the way the state implements its oft-debated motion picture tax credit program were moved to the Senate floor Monday. Sen.

Bill: Hospitals inform patients about out-of-network services

The House Insurance Committee Tuesday amended and recommended to the full chamber a bill that would require hospitals to disclose which medical providers are not in a patient’s insurance network prior to scheduled non-emergency services.

Constitutional convention sought to fix ‘broken system’

Louisiana will be on its way to its next constitutional convention to adjust the Louisiana Constitution where it deals with fiscal matters if a bill approved in the House Governmental Affairs Committee Tuesday makes it through the House and Senate.

$120 million LEPA power plant online

The $120 million power plant that began operating nearly a year ago in Morgan City is putting cost-effective power on the electricity grid for communities throughout the region to use, a plant executive said.