Sunday Brunch

By Greg LaRose | Editor-in-Chief

On this day in history in 1938, journalist Carlton Magee was awarded a U.S. patent for a coin-operated parking meter. Magee had already gained notoriety for helping expose the Teapot Dome scandal.

By Julie O’Donoghue

Gov. Jeff Landry tied pay raises for judges, prosecutors, firefighters, elected officials and possibly thousands of other state government workers to compensation for teachers Monday when he declared “nobody in state government” would get a pay raise if public school teachers don’t receive one. 

By Piper Hutchinson

A Louisiana legislative committee advanced a congressional redistricting plan Thursday evening that adds an additional Republican seat ahead of this year’s midterm elections. The vote to advance the bill came after more than five hours of passionate public testimony, all in opposition to his proposal.

By Julie O’Donoghue

Secretary of State Nancy Landry is pushing this bill, saying it will solve an election problem looming in 2028. In that year, Louisiana won’t have the ability to limit its presidential party primaries and races for the Democratic and Republican state central committees to only voters in their respective parties while also having congressional primaries open to no-party voters, she said.

A Floodlight investigation, in collaboration with the Louisiana Illuminator and Verite News, has found that while state Sen. Jay Morris used his political position to advance Meta’s Hyperion data center project, he and his business partners were buying and selling the land around it over the past 15 months.

A slate of bills to give individual Louisiana parishes say-so over whether carbon dioxide sequestration projects can take place locally failed in committee, effectively killing the effort for the legislative session. 

The Louisiana Legislature is on the verge of approving state support for clinical studies on psychedelic drugs used to treat mental health and substance abuse disorders. It would allow the Louisiana Department of Health to give administrative and possibly financial resources to universities and research clinics that are studying the drugs under federal oversight.

Pregnant patients experiencing miscarriage who live in states with abortion bans have fewer options for healthcare management, according to a new study published by the Journal of the American Medical Association.

State lawmakers across the country also grappling with the question of who should be required to report suspected child abuse or neglect, known as “mandated reporters.”Some legislators are weighing whether clergy should be included — and whether they should be forced to reveal information from confessions. Others are wrestling with whether sports coaches, talent agents, camp leaders and other professions with access to children should be mandated reporters.

A coalition of Democratic attorneys general and governors has sued the U.S. Department of Education over forthcoming regulations that will impose new borrowing limits for students pursuing certain advanced degree programs. 

Thanks for reading Sunday Brunch. Did you know our daily morning newsletter is also free? Sign up here. And if you enjoyed today’s edition, please forward to a friend. Increasing our readership helps us cover more news.