By Greg LaRose | Editor-in-Chief
On this day in history in 1864, the Confederacy lost the Battle of Mobile Bay. It gave the Union forces control of Fort Morgan, the last Confederate stronghold on the Gulf Coast.
More state and local leaders are pushing to hold parents accountable for their children’s behavior, particularly when it involves serious criminal offenses. (Photo by Troy Bennett/Maine Morning Star)
By Amanda Watford
When young children and teenagers get into trouble, the question often comes quickly: Where were their parents? That question is again shaping public policy in communities across the country, as state and local lawmakers and prosecutors increasingly look for ways to respond to concerns about youth crime and public disorder.
Louisiana has one of the strictest laws on the books aimed at parents whose children are responsible for criminal activity. But there is little empirical evidence showing that the laws actually reduce youth crime.
Wes Muller/LAI
By Wes Muller
The Louisiana Department of Veterans Affairs has acknowledged the findings but also notes the census data used in the study is a multi-year snapshot from a period that included significant economic disruption from the coronavirus pandemic. Although COVID-19 could have inflated overall rates of veteran poverty, the analysis compared data from all 50 states, and nothing suggests the pandemic skewed Louisiana’s rate more than the rest of the country.
By Piper Hutchinson
Nearly every athletic department at Louisiana’s public universities is bleeding money, impacting the fiscal health of the rest of the school. The situation has athletics administrators eyeing ways to generate more sales tax revenue on and near campus to stabilize their programs.
MORE LOUISIANA NEWS
A whooping crane approaches the fence of its enclosure at the Audubon Species Survival Center in New Orleans. (Elise Plunk/LAI)
Louisiana is home to one of the few whooping crane reintroduction programs in the country. The cranes’ advocates say a Trump administration shake-up of habitat protections for endangered species would be widely detrimental, but they also wonder whether Louisiana’s program, unique environment and culture could ensure the cranes are shielded from the worst effects.
More child deaths possibly linked to abuse and neglect in Louisiana have been investigated so far this year than in all of 2025, and the number of proven fatal incidents is on pace to surpass last year’s count according to the state’s child welfare agency.
Amazon and state officials announced the company’s data center hub under construction in Northwest Louisiana will be expanded. The expansion comes as debate continues in Louisiana over data centers’ natural resource and electricity use.
IN NATIONAL NEWS
A family waits in line to apply for asylum at the southern border between El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, in 2023. (Corrie Boudreaux for Source NM)
The number of refugees admitted to the United States during the first 10 months of the fiscal year is on pace to hit its lowest level on record, according to a new analysis. The new numbers reflect a steep decline in refugee admissions since President Donald Trump began his second term, according to a new analysis.
For more than three decades, researchers have been tracking ticks, mice, oak trees and other wildlife in a New York forest to better understand what makes Lyme disease more likely to spread. Their latest findings challenge some long-held assumptions — including the idea that deer are a major driver of Lyme disease risk.
Families who believe local officials prematurely ruled their loved ones’ deaths suicides or accidents — rather than investigating whether domestic violence played a role — are pushing lawmakers in a growing number of states to require additional scrutiny.
COMMENTARY
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