By Greg LaRose | Editor-in-Chief
The floodgates have opened for the Louisiana Legislature, with the first raft of bills making their way through committee hearings.
State Sen. Rick Edmonds, with his wife, Cindy, speaks with reporters after he qualified to run for the 5th Congressional District at the State Archives in Baton Rouge on Feb. 11, 2026. (Greg LaRose/LAI)
By Piper Hutchinson
A Louisiana Senate committee advanced two bills Tuesday that seek to criminalize disruptive protests in and near churches, but free speech advocates believe they are unconstitutional. Sen Rick Edmonds, sponsor of one of the measures, acknowledged no such incidents are known to have happened in the state.
Bins are filled with packaged food at the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank. (Cross Harris/LSU Manship School News Service)
By LSU Manship News Service
Changes in federal law will require Louisiana to spend $42.3 million more on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in the coming fiscal year, while food-stamp recipients cope with expanded work requirements and rising grocery costs. Under President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed last summer, Louisiana will absorb a larger share of SNAP’s administrative and benefit costs as federal contributions decrease.
Clouds pass over Tiger Stadium on March 20, 2023, on Louisiana State University’s campus in Baton Rouge. (Matthew Perschall/LAI)
By Shauneen Miranda
U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy hosted a roundtable of experts, leaders and former college and professional athletes — including two from LSU — to discuss “fixing college sports.” Their discussion added to the fierce debate over compensation for student-athletes, with participants agreeing the current system wasn’t working but having different ideas for a path forward.
By Natalie McLendon, The Current
More than 60 years after it was put in place, a federal judge is reviewing a desegregation order for Calcasieu Parish public schools and potentially considering its dismissal. Many schools remain racially identifiable, despite the supposed integration achieved through that order and years of federal oversight.
COMMENTARY
By Robert Collins
The session will be the first major test of Mayor Helena Moreno’s influence at the State Capitol. Although Moreno is a Democrat trying to influence a legislature where Republicans hold supermajorities, she is a former member of the Louisiana House of Representatives. The question now is whether she can use those relationships to advance legislation that stabilizes the city’s finances and increases local control over public infrastructure.
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