Sunday Brunch

By Julie O’Donoghue | Senior Reporter

On this day in 1977, rock icon Elvis Presley died of a heart attack at the age of 42 at his Graceland estate in Memphis, Tennessee.

By Wes Muller

Social media giant Meta gets to keep records for its projected $50 billion data center secret after state utility regulators overturned a judge’s order to make them public. 

By Julie O’Donoghue

A new state law increases the Medicaid rate paid to independent rural health clinics by $41.50 this fiscal year and again next year, assuming the federal government approves the new payment structure. Not everyone is happy about the change. Rural hospital owners, who also own clinics that did not receive the same rate increase, said the pay bump gives independently owned clinics a financial edge.

By Greg LaRose

The two state agencies charged with enforcing Louisiana laws that limit the size and weight of big rigs have taken their eyes off the road in recent years, according to a new Legislative Auditor’s report.

A new state law prohibits merchants from adding surcharges to debit card transactions, but critics say the ban actually benefits the banks and credit card companies that created the fees. 

Louisiana is one of six states to receive waivers allowing them to consolidate more than $109 million in federal education funding and bypass certain requirements for local education agencies. It’s a part of a growing push by the Trump administration to turn federal education measures to state control.

Louisiana lawmakers have signed off on a 10-year, no-bid contract worth $192.6 million to provide public safety equipment and technology for law enforcement and the prison system.

A group of leading anti-abortion organizations sent a letter to newly confirmed U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche urging him to review the U.S. Department of Justice’s authority to use  a 150-year-old anti-obscenity law to prevent people from obtaining abortion medication or other related materials through the mail.

A largely overlooked part of the executive order President Donald Trump issued this week scaling back the schedule for childhood vaccines threatens legal action against the four states that don’t allow personal or religious exemptions to school vaccine requirements.

Since President Donald Trump began his second term with a vow to crack down on illegal immigration, more than a dozen states have enacted laws designed to keep ICE away from schools.

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