Sunday Brunch

By Greg LaRose | Editor-in-Chief

On this day in 1955, the results of a two-year trial of a polio vaccine with almost 2 million children were made public, showing it had 80% to 90% efficacy. Production began immediately on Dr. Jonas Salk’s creation, leading to the eradication of polio.

By Kelcie Moseley-Morris

A federal judge in Louisiana has upheld telehealth access to abortion medication for the time being, pausing the case Attorney General Liz Murrill brought against the U.S. Food and Drug Administration until the agency completes a safety review of the drug, mifepristone.

By Wes Muller

A legislative committee blocked a bill that would have established a Louisiana Voting Rights Act to strengthen protections against gerrymandering and voter suppression. Similar safeguards had long been the responsibility of the federal government until conservative rulings from the U.S. Supreme Court and Trump administration policy significantly weakened the U.S. Department of Justice’s civil rights authority. 

By Elise Plunk

The fight is back on over regulation of menhaden fishing off the Louisiana coast, with the state legislature entering the fray. Lawmakers’ proposals so far favor recreational anglers and charter captains who have accused the industry of upsetting the balance of the offshore ecosystem. 

A Louisiana Senate committee blocked a proposal that would have made it a misdemeanor crime to leave loaded guns unsecured in the presence of young children, the mentally ill or anyone prohibited from having firearms. The bill had the backing of the Louisiana Conference of Catholic Bishops, whose leader called it a “pro-life” bill. But his support wasn’t enough to overcome the gun lobby at the Louisiana Legislature.

Louisiana colleges have adhered to the standards of a regional accreditation group going back more than a century, but a conservative movement is progressing to allow the schools to seek another option.

Thousands of people in Louisiana could earn the right to sue others over social media and website posts containing their personal information.  The legislature is quickly moving two bills that would allow police officers, administrative law judges, victims of sex crimes and members of their respective households to pursue criminal charges and lawsuits if personal information is shared about them online without their consent. 

President Donald Trump’s SAVE America Act would mandate that most Americans show a birth certificate or passport to register to vote. But people with names that don’t match their birth certificate in some instances could have to produce additional documents like a marriage certificate or divorce decree linking their past and current identities.

At least 2.5 million low-income people quickly lost help affording groceries under a Republican-passed law that added new requirements for the nation’s largest nutrition program and shifted hundreds of millions of dollars in costs from the federal government to states, according to a study.

Congress will look considerably different next year, after dozens of its members move on to other political offices or retire, a number that’s likely to grow as some of those hoping to stay lose their reelection bids. 

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