By Greg LaRose | Editor-in-Chief
We now know what the ballots will look like for the May 16 closed party primaries, and the in-fighting is already underway among Republicans in the U.S. Senate race.
U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy faces a reelection challenge from U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow. Both qualified Friday, Feb. 13, 2026, for the Republican Party primary. (Piper Hutchinson/LAI)
By Piper Hutchinson
President Donald Trump’s surprise endorsement of U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow in her bid to unseat fellow Republican U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy has set up a heated showdown, and the pair did not disappoint as they traded barbs on the final day of candidate qualifying for the May 16 party primaries.
Students walk between classes at the University of New Orleans on Feb. 10, 2026. (Greg LaRose/LAI)
By Piper Hutchinson
As Louisiana seeks to have 60% of its adults hold a college degree or credential, President Donald Trump’s administration is investigating the state’s effort to increase the number of minority residents who reach that goal.
President Donald Trump issued a posthumous pardon for LSU football legend Billy Cannon, the school’s first Heisman Trophy winner. Cannon was convicted of counterfeiting in 1983. (Photo courtesy of LSU Athletics)
By Piper Hutchinson
Billy Cannon, LSU’s first Heisman Trophy winner and the star of its 1958 national championship team, practiced dentistry and orthodontia after retiring from professional football. Failed real estate investments and gambling debts led to him into counterfeiting, resulting in a federal conviction in 1983.
By Bobbi-Jeanne Misick, Verite
Four immigrant men held inside “Camp 57,” a recently opened federal immigration lockup located at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, were released from the facility to rejoin their families after a federal judge found their continued incarceration unconstitutional.
COMMENTARY
By Greg LaRose
There was no shortage of enthusiasm last week among the Democratic candidates who qualified to run in Louisiana’s congressional party primaries. They passionately and eloquently explained why they were motivated to run for office, mostly railing against what they see as an out-of-control Trump administration. Yet for all their zeal and conviction, none stand a realistic chance of displacing a Republican from the U.S. Senate or the four U.S. House seats the party currently holds in Louisiana.
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