By Greg LaRose | Editor-in-Chief
Overshadowing all news in Louisiana politics today is the Sunday morning mass shooting in Shreveport in which eight children were killed. The Caddo Parish coroner has identified the victims, ranging in age from 3 to 11. Read more.
Voters leave the polling location at the Bricolage Academy gym in New Orleans on Nov. 5, 2024, election. (Photo by Matthew Perschall for Louisiana Illuminator)
By Wes Muller
Candidates will square off for control of Congress and key state-level offices next month in Louisiana’s switch to closed party primaries (some consider them “semi-closed,” and we explain why). We’ve compiled all the info about who can vote and when, along with what to do if you’re pondering a party switch.
Calvin Duncan, who was elected clerk of the Orleans Parish Criminal District Court, greets patrons at Vaughan’s Lounge New Orleans during a campaign event on Sept. 26, 2025. (Photo by Christiana Botic/Verite News)
By Greg LaRose
Republicans in the Louisiana Legislature continue to push through measures to shrink the court system in New Orleans, the state’s majority-Black, Democratic stronghold. But this efficiency argument has taken a backseat during debate over the clerk bill because it would eliminate the post to which former “prison lawyer” and now licensed attorney Calvin Duncan was elected in November and is poised to assume May 4. The criminal court clerk also oversees elections in New Orleans.
The Planned Parenthood clinic in New Orleans was open for over 40 years but stopped seeing patients at the end of September 2025 after federal Medicaid funding cuts took effect. (Photo by Greg LaRose/Louisiana Illuminator)
By Sophia Resnick
A controversial rule enacted last year that denies federal Medicaid funding to abortion providers is likely to expire this summer, despite anti-abortion pressure on Republicans to renew it.
By Greg LaRose
The U.S. Supreme Court has decided a Plaquemines Parish lawsuit against Chevron over coastal wetlands damage, which resulted in a $745 million judgment for the local government, should be moved from state to federal court, where the company expects a more favorable outcome.
By Jonathan Shorman
The National Guard’s top general told Congress it would follow the Constitution and the law when he was asked about the possibility President Donald Trump would order troops to polling places for the midterm elections. Democratic lawmakers also voiced unease over the continuing deployment of nearly 2,500 National Guard members in Washington, D.C.
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