By Greg LaRose | Editor-in-Chief
I hope you have a fantastic Friday ahead of you.
Here’s a story from the “sounds familiar” category: CVS has blanketed Tennessee airways and sent mass text messages to defeat a bill that targets its pharmacy benefit manager offshoot. Read more
Reps. Chuck Owen, R-Rosepine, and Rodney Schamerhorn, R-Hornbeck, are carrying legislation that would direct the Louisiana Economic Development agency to promote the expansion of the wood pellet industry throughout the state, despite connection to carbon capture and sequestration projects. (Allison Allsop/LAI)
By Elise Plunk
Legislation to expand wood pellet manufacturing in Louisiana is gaining traction despite concerns over the industry’s connection to underground carbon storage, which has attracted a growing number of critics among state lawmakers.
A fleur de lis sculpture is the centerpiece of the quadrangle fountain at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. (Greg LaRose/LAI)
By Piper Hutchinson
Gov. Jeff Landry has boasted of not growing the state budget since he took office in 2024. But while funding has generally stood still, inflation has created the practical effect of budget cuts for colleges and universities. Commissioner of Higher Education Kim Hunter Reed lists inflation and athletics costs among the key factors leading to financial challenges at several public universities in Louisiana.
A clinic in Salem, Oregon, where lawmakers approved $7.5 million for 12 Planned Parenthood health centers in the state after a tax break and spending cut bill signed by President Donald Trump in July cut off federal reimbursements for one year. (Mia Maldonado/Oregon Capital Chronicle)
By Kelcie Moseley-Morris
Visits for contraception and cancer screenings at Planned Parenthood clinics have dropped by double-digits after Congress passed a bill cutting off Medicaid funding to certain reproductive health care providers last year, according to a new Democratic congressional report.
By Sofia Resnick
In a news release, the U.S. Department of Health said the investigation is based on allegations that the states are coercing health care entities to provide coverage of abortion “contrary to conscience” and in violation of a federal law known as the Weldon Amendment.
By Kevin Hardy
The left-leaning Economic Policy Institute calculated women last year earned almost 20% less than men per hour on average. The institute says women earn less because of occupational differences, societal norms and the devaluation of women’s work.
D.C. DIGEST
NEWS FROM THE STATES
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