Time to limit four-day instructional school week

If one Louisiana legislator has her way, school districts which don’t perform highly that contemplate but haven’t made the switch to a four-day a week of instruction will miss the boat – which, given the dynamics of which districts have chosen to pursue it, might be an idea whose time has come.

SB 82 by Republican state Sen. Beth Mizell would prohibit any school system that already doesn’t operate on a four-day a week from doing so unless it scores an ‘A’ in performance, requiring instruction five days a week (with holidays as exceptions). Only 15 have gone in this direction at present (one is planning to do that for academic year 2027). The minimum instruction time of over 63,000 minutes annually doesn’t change, although many districts have students spend more than that time in the classroom regardless of how many days a week incorporate instruction.

Should the bill become law, practically speaking that limits future conversions severely. This is as public schools become subject to a new scoring system stricter (and more realistic) than the one used through this year. Only 10 districts ranked as A as a result in simulation, but only nine would be eligible as Vernon Parish already has gone to the four-day schedule, so unless this changes 45 districts for now would be out of luck.

Bill to save bucks, not injure higher education

Louisiana yanking taxpayer dollars from select universities for select programs isn’t as deleterious to the concept of higher education at it might seem at first glance.

Republican state Rep. John Wyble has prefiled HB 229. The bill would prohibit allocations of state dollars in any form from going to low-earning outcome programs of study at state schools, as well as those from any local government, beginning in the summer of 2027.

A “low-earning outcome program of study” is defined by guidance from the federal government made at the beginning of this year. With the data it had in hand, it calculated the average earnings (over four years from several years ago) of a school’s graduates in various certificate programs, undergraduate majors, or graduate degrees, and declared those whose average fell below the average high school graduate’s salary for certifications and associate and bachelor degree awardees, or below the average college-degreed or certified salary for graduate degrees, would fit this category. In Louisiana, the former mark is around $32,200 and the latter about $51,000 in that time period.

Bossier Jury maintains charade more transparently

Three-quarters illegal is still illegal, a fact the Bossier Parish Police Jury can’t avoid even as it takes a small step towards transparency.

At its meeting this week, the Jury took inched towards addressing its continued unlawful behavior regarding the parish’s Library Board of Control. Statute requires that a parish seat five to seven citizens of the parish for five-year terms staggered each year, appoint officers annually, every year submit a budget request to the Jury, and meet at least once a year.

None of this happened in 2025. The last time the Jury “appointed” members, in direct violation of the law it tried to place all 12 members onto the Board for 2024, which held one meeting that year. In the interim, one term expired at the end of September in 2024, and another again in 2025.

Entry can't beat Arceneaux but could make him lose

It’s really more spite than serious victory chances with Republican Caddo Parish Commissioner John-Paul Young’s announced entry into the Shreveport mayor’s race.

Young declared himself a candidate after months of speculation and a year’s worth of sniping on his part directed towards GOP Shreveport Mayor Tom Arceneaux. Most of his criticism, which included a lawsuit about a year ago concerning the then-language of laws dealing with squatters, has focused on property standards. Whether that made a difference, Arceneaux in short order worked with the City Council to clarify the legal standard for blight enforcement and launched a campaign to crack down on it. He then amped up the effort with his Block by Block initiative that has made significant inroads into cleaning up derelict properties.

This didn’t seem to satisfy Young, who kept complaining while Arceneaux disputed his assertions. Less in dispute is the practical impact of Young’s entrance, where he won’t win but he could help to deprive Arceneaux of a second term.

Dysfunctional arts group needs BC tough love

Belatedly, Bossier City is getting more guarded about its direction of tax dollars toward private entities, and implementing a little tough love to a long-simmering problem area is a good next step.

This week, the Bossier City Council tees up its 2026 five-year capital budget. This one calls for $188 million in spending, a substantial increase from the $130 million called for in last year’s. Most of that increase comes from transportation zooming from $36 million to $84 million, with the lion’s share taken by new projects to improve Viking Drive, improve Hamilton Road, create a cut-through from Barksdale Boulevard to the arena, and to bump up generic street improvements by two-thirds. Much of the rest comes from engineering projects jumping up from $24 million to $41 million with the addition of a Swan Lake Road to Deen Point waterline and Interstate 20 exit improvements.

Unfortunately, like herpes, this budget has resurfacing the “multi-purpose indoor sports venue.” This is shorthand for a city taxpayer gift to the YMCA, which the city would allow the Y to run and derive revenues from in exchange for giving residents the chance to pay dues to the Y to use the facility their tax dollars built. As previously noted, given the wide availability of recreation options available already for residents there’s no reason for this, yet it has appeared in all but one budget beginning in 2021. With a pair of reform-minded councilors in their second terms and four like-minded new ones, there’s no reason this Council should let stick around this $20 million waste, especially as the city tries to crawl out from under a mound of debt and has made this mistake before with the city’s tennis center.

Remove useless requirement to empower families

With a needless requirement teed up for removal, parents in Louisiana will gain greater say in the future of their children’s school that particularly will assist some in Monroe.

HB 83 by Republican state Rep. Mike Echols would excise from statute a stricture mandating double majorities for parents and school staff to request that a school serving their attendance zone be converted into a Type 2 charter school. That designation means administration would occur by a charter association aligned with the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, rather than with the local school district or a Type 3 school, which requires approval by the local school board or, failing that, BESE, then approved by the double majority if the local authority wants that (by administrative code), which the bill effectively also would remove. (A Type 4 conversion, or a local board running a school under a charter with BESE, also has this requirement.)

A double majority is where not only a majority of those voting must approve of something but also a majority of the relevant electorate must vote in the election. These are not uncommon in countries around the world but almost always apply to large jurisdictions and questions, such as amending constitutions or having citizens pass a law. The concept sporadically exists in America, dealing only with forced annexations into different governments.

GOP BESE candidates need to explain positions

Voters in Louisiana’s boot are going to suffer off-year overload with not only hotly-contested U.S. Senate and Fifth Congressional District races but also a slew of state-level elections that may prove as vigorously contested.

 Elections for the Public Service Commission and Supreme Court will end up putting a Republican in office, but will test voters on their abilities to distinguish among candidates more aligned with consistent conservatism and others less so. By contrast, the special election for the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education features a lineup blasting from the past without obvious and clearcut differences.

After a number of years out of the political limelight, when past member Republican Paul Hollis received confirmation as GOP Pres. Donald Trump’s director of the U.S. Mint, Republican Anh “Joseph” Cao was appointed by GOP Gov. Jeff Landry late last year to hold the seat on an interim basis. He signed up to finish the last couple of years of Hollis’ term.

SE LA Republicans must choose wisely in primaries

In the District 1 Public Service Commission race, Republicans would seem to have a surer thing with the qualification of Republican state Rep. Mark Wright into the contest. But they also have to be careful about a Louisiana Supreme Court contest around the same area.

Wright dove into the opportunity of succeeding GOP Public Service Commissioner Eric Skrmetta yesterday, joining fellow Republican state Rep. Stephanie Hilferty. Her announcement raised some eyebrows among conservative voters and especially climate realists because of her record as perhaps the least conservative member of her party in the chamber, according to her average score over the past six years on the Louisiana Legislature Log scorecard, particularly in the last three years, although her recent votes on issues that intersect with the PSC’s authority showed affinity with a climate realism agenda.

Wright’s consistent conservativism according to the scorecard raises no such doubts. Over the past six years, he averaged almost 88 on the scorecard (higher scores denote greater conservative/reform impulses), in line with the GOP chamber average and, unlike Hilferty who scored at just above 50 in the past two sessions, Wright averaged 100 over that span.

Conservatives hope for best with Hilferty PSC run

Heading into qualifying for fall elections, Louisiana conservatives and climate realists might be staring at a low-value trade.

At present, the Public Service Commission has a 3-2 Republican majority, which roughly mirrors the division between realists and climate alarmists on the panel that regulates, among other things, utilities that provide power. Democrat Davante Lewis is nothing more than a windup, around-the-bend alarmist, while Democrat Foster Campbell has shown some sympathy for alarmist views but has stopped short of full-on promulgation of alarmism in his voting behavior.

Campbell is term-limited, and his replacement almost certainly will be Republican Caddo Parish Commissioner John Atkins who expresses realist views, so that would bring a PSC less likely to commit mistakes in the name of alarmism. Unfortunately, one of the premier exponents of realism on the PSC for the past dozen years, Republican Eric Skrmetta, also is term-limited, and the frontrunner to replace him is more uncertain in adhering to realism.

Anxious Democrats spin hold as fortune reversal

Maybe it’s a sign of insecurity or an attempt to feel good after innumerable recent beatdowns, but the hold by Democrats of House District 60 in its recent election is much ado about nothing.

This weekend, Democrat Iberville Parish Councilor Chasity Martinez won comfortably over Republican Brad Daigle, who serves on the Greater Baton Rouge Port Commission. This set off some cries of jubilation on the left, both in and out of state, as GOP Pres. Donald Trump had won the district, about two-thirds in Iberville and the remainder in Assumption Parishes, by double-digits in 2024.

But don’t buy that this has any import regarding partisan political fortunes beyond that district. There’s a reason that the district never has elected a Republican, beginning with it is just about the last bastion in the state outside of New Orleans with significant white voter support for Democrats. By way of example, for the Iberville Parish Council only a single Republican was elected along with Martinez in 2023 where she defeated a long-time Democrat incumbent, in a parish almost evenly divided between black and white voters and where Trump’s ticket gained a bare majority a year later.

Recapturing UNO unlikely to boost enrollment much

The Louisiana State University System, and chiefly the flagship campus in Baton Rouge, is having its revenge on the University of New Orleans, echoing more than a dozen years ago when UNO left and the Shreveport campus might have been snatched away.

Last year, the Louisiana Legislature passed a bill passing UNO back to the LSU System. UNO has had financial difficulties (although some of its own making that was entirely avoidable) since the hurricane disasters of 2005 that caused an enrollment plunge. The switch out came as UNO had chafed under the dominance that LSU has within the system since the 1958 establishment of LSUNO, which didn’t throw off the shackles of being considered a property of LSU (for its first years, it was considered an extension of LSU) until its name change about 15 years later.

Now, it’s back to the future. Starting next academic year, not only are the school’s silver and blue colors for decades the being junked to adopt LSU’s purple and gold, but the name is reverting back to LSUNO. This follows the same strategy as when the system underwent governance changes at the same time UNO left, in response to a move in the Legislature to merge LSUS and Louisiana Tech.

NE LA sees last-minute U.S. House, PSC changes

Although somewhat less wacky than the eruptions rocking Louisiana’s Fifth Congressional District contest, northeast Louisianans also saw some changes wash over the state’s District 5 Public Service Commission race as qualifying occurs this week for both.

For the House of Representatives, Republican state Sen. Blake Miguez’s shuffle out of the U.S. Senate field, essentially leaving a three-way battle among GOP incumbent Bill Cassidy, the current CD 5 Republican Rep. Julia Letlow, and GOP state Treas. John Fleming where any two of these three could make the nomination runoff and the winner therefore winning the office later this fall, shook up a passel of candidates who sprung out of the woodwork after Letlow with little warning entered the Senate race, propelled by an endorsement from Republican Pres. Donald Trump. Then immediately after Miguez said he had switched, Trump endorsed him.

With the millions of dollars already committed to his previous federal contest that he can transfer and the imprimatur of Trump, Miguez becomes the favorite to succeed Letlow, despite the fact that he doesn’t live near the district (no district residency requirement is imposed constitutionally, only state residency). The move doesn’t look accidental, and possibly it was triggered by Trump-aligned backers who didn’t want to see Miguez’s momentum they had helped build go to waste. With the U.S. Supreme Court poised to give the state a fourth district map in five elections, Miguez if elected would be able to have a new map and/or undertake a change in address putting him in the district to defend it in 2028.

Trump CD 5 Miguez endorsement prompts questions

Republican Pres. Donald Trump’s endorsement of GOP state Sen. Blake Miguez to succeed Republican Rep. Julia Letlow in Louisiana’s Fifth Congressional District leaves more questions than the one answered with it.

That one being, Miguez now should be rated the favorite to win. A huge war chest he transferred from his attempted Senate campaign when he shucked that upon the entrance of Letlow into that contest – after her receiving explicit encouragement from Trump – certainly put him up there as a big contender, but questions lingered because Miguez is domiciled (close to New Iberia) nowhere near the district. He had no particular history in the district save attending Louisiana State University and his legislative service of the past several years, so it was uncertain how district voters might receive that, especially those in its northern reaches some 300 miles from where he lives. As well, having abandoned the Senate contest and shifting gears so suddenly might make him look too opportunistic, if not desperate, to secure a seat in Washington, D.C. that may not play well with voters.

Trump’s unexpected endorsement changes those dynamics well into his favor. Given the president’s popularity in the district, which goes from moderately high in its southern portion to extremely high in its north, that does carry a lot of weight and if advertised – and it will be with all the resources Miguez can draw to bear – can override concerns about his alien presence in the district. Opponents can raise that argument, but if Trump says it’s all right regardless, that’s  going to good enough for a lot of Republicans – and that’s all that’s needed, since the winner of the GOP primary will win the general election.

Not so crazy Miguez entry hikes CD 5 craziness

The craziness of Louisiana’s Fifth Congressional District got taken up a notch when Republican state Sen. Blake Miguez bailed on the state’s Senate contest to toss his hat – a considerable distance since his domicile is well out of the district – into the ring of this race, an idea which actually isn’t so crazy.

The base craziness now elevated comes from the district itself being on life support, assuredly dismembered in large part for 2028 elections after the U.S. Supreme Court (in a delayed, Solomonic response to not upset too abruptly maps from many states prior to this year’s tilts) will decide the current state map is unconstitutional. The inevitability opened the floodgates for candidates wanting to get in on the ground floor for a congressional career after its incumbent GOP Rep. Julia Letlow made a surprise bid for the Senate, and apparently, among others, chased Miguez from that race.

Because of the bizarre shape of the district that starts in the Florida parishes, heads west to part of Baton Rouge, then swings north up the Mississippi River to clip Alexandria and concludes by grabbing a piece of Monroe on the way to the Arkansas line, a wide range of candidates have expressed they will and seem poised to run. As Scott McKay observes, some candidates involved have tenuous connections to the district, which constitutionally is not a hindrance in qualifying for the contest, but does create chances for their opponents to highlight their candidacies as more disconnected to the district if not blatantly opportunistic.

Cassidy made desperate after Senate race shakeup

Just like that, Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy now is odds-on to miss the party preference primary nomination for his office and may lead him to consider doing the previously unthinkable.

Which isn’t to drop out. Up to this week, Cassidy increasingly had buffeted storms in his quest for reelection later this year as GOP quality challenger after quality challenger entered the contest. Up until the middle of last month, the multiplicity of such challengers had put him in a position with his projected support so eroded that he would have to endure a runoff for the nod which he seemed likely to lose, but regardless was the most likely to survive to it.

Then Republican Rep. Julia Letlow made a surprising entrance into the race after GOP Pres. Donald Trump endorsed her out of the blue. That by itself began to threaten Cassidy’s place in the runoff, as Letlow would take more votes from him that the other more-conservative competitors, all the more particularly since Cassidy had made an enemy of Trump by voting to convict him of half-baked impeachment charges between Trump’s terms.

Costs, benefits calculus warrants CCS skepticism

What those promoting carbon capture and sequestration cannot either understand or admit to is, even if they can make claims about safety and economic development, that the overall cost to society of subsidizing their efforts exceeds benefits conveyed to society, justifying local populations in rejecting their entreaties.

Increasingly, Louisianans express alarm at the idea of sequestering carbon near or under their back yards. The latest flashpoint comes in Ascension Parish, where unusual bedfellows find themselves moving together to oppose a CCS project called River Parish Sequestration. It is a subsidiary of a firm called Blue Sky Infrastructure managed by Blackstone, a private investment firm comprised of hedge funds.

Part of the opposition comes from the usual leftist suspects who decry any industrial expansion as forfeiting “environmental justice.” But this anti-intellectual screed is joined by the growing conservative opposition in many parts of the state objecting to CCS over issues of safety and property rights, both real and pecuniary.

Constitutional convention bill meritorious

An audacious plan to redo Louisiana’s Constitution might just succeed within the next two years.

While widely agreed it should happen, constitutional convention implementation has foundered over recent years on charges it would be too rushed, too narrow or too broad, and too exclusive of citizens. Which is why HB 4 by Republican state Rep. Dixon McMakin should draw serious consideration.

The bill would establish a rolling convention, setting up subcommittees to review each of the overstuffed document’s 14 sections and an executive committee to oversee. Presumably, subcommittees, required to meet at least monthly, would do so over starting in early 2027 for the next nine months or so, followed by a decision on changes by all 93 delegates. The product would be available for voter approval at the 2027 general election. Any parts of the current Constitution not included in the end product would revert to statute.

Reveal what LA GATOR ESA opponents really mean

Understanding the rationale behind Louisiana’s foray into education savings accounts presents a good argument for program expansion, a view at loggerheads with some legislators who actually supported this plan at its inception.

Another battle seems brewing between education freedom advocates in Louisiana, backed at the top by Republican Gov. Jeff Landry, and those policy-makers more cautious on the issue, represented by GOP Sen. Pres. Cameron Henry. The throwdown came with Landry boosting in his fiscal year 2027 budget spending on educational savings accounts by double, which would allow for more than only the few hundred families at present able to take advantage of these besides the thousands of low-income families carried over from the state’s previous voucher/scholarship program aimed at allowing children who did attend or who would have attended inferior schools a choice at a better education environment. He had tried something similar last year, but Henry led opposition in thwarting that.

At and after the budget presentation last week, Henry threw cold water on the requested increase of around $44 million. During the Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget hearing, he opined that the program had too many other possible family uses attached to it besides moving children away from failing schools to private schools, and accused the Department of Education of bad faith in keeping him informed about these details. Afterwards, in an interview he went further, saying he would reconceptualize the whole program, limiting it to tuition costs needed to move children out of subpar schools.

Higher cost, tougher on crime policy benefits LA

An increase in costs for Louisiana to house inmates, because more are being sentenced to jail and fewer are out on parole? Money well spent.

Far leftist media in the state began hyperventilating after the release of Republican Gov. Jeff Landry’s budget. In it, about $82 million more will go to corrections, fairly evenly split between the state system and in reimbursements to local jailers for housing state prisoners. Landry led the charge with legislative Republicans two years ago to overhaul the state’s criminal justice laws, which several years earlier had been relaxed, to sentence more people to jail and fewer to probation, force convicts to serve the vast majority (or if convicted after Aug. 1, 2024, all) of their sentences in jail, and to reduce the possibility of parole. In addition, Landry has appointed to the Board of Pardons and Parole members who more critically vet potential parolees, which has reduced the proportion of the lower proportion receiving a hearing that successfully attain early release.

These media bemoaned these outcomes, ideologically because of the tougher-on-crime agenda producing them, but also instrumentally in that this means fewer dollars to redistribute from state government to or to go to policies aiding their favored constituencies. The goal is to allege that the new policies largely waste money as they produce little or no benefits, defined as the opportunity for if not actual fact of reduced crime.

Monroe must try harder to avoid big rate hikes

Monrovians will have to bite the bullet – and very hard and big – over the water, sewerage, and waste disposal fees coming their way in May, which didn’t have to be this hard or big.

This week, the City Council is expected to ratify an ordinance that will increase these costs by nearly $300 annually (assuming a typical average usage of 4,000 gallons monthly for water and sewerage by a city residence) per ratepayer. Water rates will rise 7 percent, sewerage rates will jump by 45 percent, and garbage pickup costs per month will mushroom 87.5 percent.

Impetus behind the move comes from the city’s debt covenant for water, which requires it to have revenues of 125 percent of the principal and interest, federal and state law regarding funding for sewerage, and market forces with garbage collection. It makes for necessary ratepayer evils, but getting slammed all at once and at this level didn’t have to happen.

Tweak good Landry budget for better future

Strangling Medicaid costs threaten to derail Republican Gov. Jeff Landry’s desire to right-size Louisiana’s budget, data behind his latest budget proposal for fiscal year 2027 revealed.

Last week, the Landry Administration submitted its FY 2027 budget to the Joint Legislative Committee of the Budget, in preparation for legislative deliberation in the upcoming 2026 Regular Session. This document must adhere to the state’s Revenue Estimating Conference, which last month disgorged the latest estimates over the next few years, and covered the source that the Legislature can utilize in appropriations bills, the general fund.

The end product was essentially standstill according to the general fund (aided by significant efficiency cuts in the neighborhood of $300 million), but incorporated a noticeable reduction of $3.5 billion overall, split fairly evenly between declines in statutory dedications and federal funds (more of the former than latter). The main factor behind the federal funds decreases is as a result of turning off the debt-fueled/inflation-triggering spigots from the Democrat Pres. Joe Biden era and Republican Pres. Donald Trump Administration programmatic changes plus some disaster-related expenditures, while for dedications that dropped mainly because the Revenue Stabilization Trust Fund was tapped so heavily for projects the previous year.

Electoral politics outs Cassidy's true self

Whether he believes the impression he conveys, now Louisiana voters are receiving confirmation about the real Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, fueled by his seriously endangered reelection chances.

Cassidy had something to say about a tragic shooting in Minneapolis, where far left activists intentionally have invited confrontation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol officials to serve a political agenda unconcerned with the rights of illegal aliens. A man, who has been described as ardently dissatisfied with GOP Pres. Donald Trump, apparently brandishing a pistol was in the process of being disarmed by agents when a gunshot, seemingly from the weapon, went off and an agent shot the suspect to death.

Unfortunately, the man showed poor judgment in deliberately bringing a firearm to a location where he acted to disrupt armed officers performing duties under the color of law and apparently not immediately identifying himself as carrying a concealed and loaded weapon. With the evidence so far gathered, a leading theory is that the weapon discharged accidentally, with the man possibly disoriented after having been sprayed with pepper along with a woman right before the disarming attempt.

Early data signaling even lower LA rates to come

Early hopeful signs concerning vehicle insurance costs for Louisianans might escalate, data from elsewhere portend.

With the end of the roadblock that was the pro-trial lawyer Democrat former Gov. John Bel Edwards upon his leaving office at the start of 2024, that year and last year the Republican legislative supermajorities and GOP Gov. Jeff Landry got busy with meaningful tort reform. Those supermajorities hardly breached the Edwards firewall protecting a legal system designed to disproportionately shovel money to trial lawyers, but Landry proved far more accommodating in ushering in agenda that has chipped away at this archaic edifice, with the assistance of Republican Insurance Secretary Tim Temple (although the two came to loggerheads sometimes with Temple wanting to push the pace faster than did Landry).

Given a fair amount of lifting over the past couple of years in the books, 2026 will look to be much quieter for insurance changes as a period of digestion seems in order. Yet already it appears fruits of this labor are accruing to consumers. Amid a half-dozen announced insurer average rate reductions since the start of 2025, pushing down the overall statewide average personal vehicle rate a calculated three percent, more dramatic changes could enjoy a pause, as results from similar legislation enacted in Florida show.

Bossier Jury makes excuses rather than follow law

It would be so easy to defuse the controversy if the Bossier Parish Police Jury would just do a few easy, simple things to follow the law.

Jurors apparently were not pleased with a recent post here (remarks reiterating that also were delivered during public comment period at the Jan. 14 Jury meeting) that pointed out deficiencies in it following the law concerning the parish’s Library Board of Control. In at least five ways, the Jury violates the law in the composition and operation — really, non-operation — of the Board.

In response, the Jury dispatched the 26^th Judicial District assistant district attorney seconded to it for its legal affairs Patrick Jackson to defend it in print. The effort fell flat, as the rejoinder didn’t address the Jury’s actions required under law but merely tried to provide justification for the Jury to operate as the Board given past Board actions that jurors alleged were insufficient.

Letlow enters Senate field in pole position

So, here we go. Republican Rep. Julia Letlow has entered the Senate race, and that entrance reverberates throughout Louisiana’s political environment putting her, for the moment, in the catbird seat.

She can be quite competitive. One lingering question has been whether jumping in nearing the qualification deadline over a year after the first serious challenger to incumbent GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy did would affect her ability to raise resources. With a little over $2 million in hand, as substantial as that might be with the Cassidy account at almost eight figures and several million more in political action committee funds, plus with other challengers having at least as much as she (plus a lead of months to build up name recognition statewide), she’ll need likely as much again and within the next four months.

That’s not insurmountable. As she received Republican Pres. Donald Trump’s effusive and explicit endorsement, that should open the taps to national donors in case those in state have fatigue. And it should poke off the sidelines those more comfortable with a Washington insider but who frowned upon Cassidy’s last five years in office.

Everyone and their dog may join LA CD 5 race

If Louisiana’s Fifth Congressional District becomes an open seat, what often is a frenetic process probably goes onto steroids courtesy of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Because Louisiana is just a handful of states that does not have most state and many local elections held during even-numbered years, contests for Congress tend to two directions: either one or two candidates consolidate support very early in the process or, absent that, a number of quality candidates end up offering themselves. As this is due to the fact that most candidates holding a state or local office do not have eschew running for reelection in order to take a shot at Congress, that encourages more candidates than typical to hit the hustings if at least one candidate hasn’t worked the political ecosystem hyper-effectively. It doesn’t matter whether blanket or semi-closed primary, the dynamic remains the same.

Thus, if Republican Rep. Julia Letlow does take a hint from GOP Pres. Donald Trump’s endorsement and jumps into the U.S. Senate race, expect a land rush of names to put their hands up to take her place in a district that basically clips Monroe, clips Alexandria, clips Baton Rouge, and sprawls eastward from all of these points. One report already has dug up five names, all state legislators, who have expressed interest in competing for the seat if Letlow shunts it aside.

Trump endorsement possibly upends LA Senate race

And now, the Louisiana Senate race of this year gets really interesting.

The contest seemed pretty much set in its field at last summer’s end. Five Republicans – incumbent Sen. Bill Cassidy, state Rep. Julie Emerson, Treasurer John Fleming, state Sen. Blake Miguez, and Public Service Commissioner Eric Skrmetta – emerged that had the chops to win it all. Most likely, Cassidy would make the semi-closed primary runoff against one of the other four, who then would be favored over Cassidy given the sourness among Republicans over Cassidy’s reversal to vote to convict GOP Pres. Donald Trump on half-baked impeachment charges, as well as concerning his sucking up on various pieces of legislation to the Democrat majorities in the first part of the decade. That challenger then easily would claim the seat in November.

Among those contenders, all vied for Trump’s endorsement, which is thought to convey an almost unimpeachable advantage to whoever receives it. However, concerning incumbents of his party that have displeased him running for reelection, Trump had not endorsed any challengers although, as in the case of Cassidy, he also withheld endorsements of some incumbents. Absent that, Fleming, who once worked for Trump as one of his senior White House aides, was considered in the best position to be viewed as the candidate Trump implicitly backed, although Miguez has played up his association with Trump’s policies as often as he could.

LA case gives chance to bolster impartiality

And this is why the U.S. Supreme Court should grant broad latitude for diversity cases such as Chevron v. Plaquemines Parish.

This week, the Court heard the case, focused on a narrow issue: should this kind of case be heard in federal or state courts. The minutiae of the case make it turn upon just how deputized energy companies are when the federal government gives some authority to their activities. The Court is asked to decide the level of assignment necessary to allow an entity to have a case heard in federal court as opposed to under state law.

In this case, the parish (and others consolidated into the case) accused Chevron (and the entities that it absorbed, plus others consolidated into the case) over decades of straying outside the boundaries of state law in its activities that supposedly caused environment degradation. Independent Judge Michael Clement of the 25^th Judicial District ruled in the parish’s favor, slapping a $744 million judgment onto Chevron that could bring the trial lawyer firm of Talbot, Carmouche & Marcello nearly a quarter-billion dollars. Chevron contends federal law protects it from this punishment.

LA pushing courts to dismiss outdated decrees

With determined effort, where once dozens of school districts in Louisiana several decades ago were under court orders and supervision to desegregate racially, by the end of 2028 every one might be relieved of this useless burden, blazing a trial for other states to follow.

When cases were brought against many of these districts 60 years or more ago, they were deserved. Segregation was rampant, even after a dozen years had passed since Brown v. Board of Education (emphasized by other such cases in the intervening years). It would take a couple of decades to ensure policies were in place to prevent discrimination in education provision in many of these instances, and when such changes were brought to the attention of the particular federal district court its judge would resolves these.

Yet others dragged on for decades after corrections had been made. Entering the second Republican Pres. Donald Trump Administration, Louisiana still had a dozen systems under these orders. The cases continued on autopilot, long after the designated judges or even original plaintiffs had died. Fortunately, the Trump Administration has aimed to clear these cases from the books, seeing them as promoting race-based behavior in the absence of any proof of discriminatory intent.

Dueling reports add up to better LA economy

So, are people coming or going in Louisiana, and what does it all mean for the state’s economic and political futures?

Each year, Atlas Van Lines puts out data about their service moving households, calculating how many trips go from one state to another. For 2025, Louisiana repeated its performance of 2024 by being the state with the highest ratio of outbound to inbound trips of family goods, of nearly 2:1.

Also each year, U-Haul publishes rankings on rentals that happen in one state with the vehicle or trailer deposited in another state. Using raw numbers, unadjusted to population, Louisiana ranked 31^st for dropped-off rentals, but this is significant because it jumped 13 places from 2024.

Allow expedited process to leave consent decrees

Long-suffering families in Concordia Parish and its school district finally might get some relief from once necessary but now burdensome and needless regulation over details about how parish public education operates.

For years, district administrators have tried to exit the school system from court supervision over a desegregation consent decree now six decades old. In these instances when plaintiffs, almost always joined at some point by the U.S. Department of Justice, sue to stop a state and/or local district from engaging in an illegal practice, often the defendants enter into an agreement to take remedial action that corrects the discrimination. This all playing out could take many years, even decades, so the presiding judge and then any successors monitor progress.

Concordia officials implemented a series of reforms long ago agreed upon by the plaintiffs and the court and, with the exception of the opening of a charter school last decade that had to be fit into the decree, for about 45 years little has changed in terms of carrying out agreed-upon actions. As with many of the ten Louisiana districts at present under decrees, this has devolved into an annual exercise of status reports with only incremental statistical changes without the need of any practice alterations, wasting enormous taxpayer resources to continue compiling and reporting with no actual need present.

Data center surge may give Port bills traction

For Republican state Rep. Danny McCormick, it’s not just a matter of trying again, but trying harder to correct potential secret government overreach on property rights as the issue becomes amplified by the data center boom in Louisiana.

McCormick has been a persistent critic of alienation of property without owners having sufficient say in what happens to their possessions. In his second term in office, he has sought to shield owners from overaggressive expropriation, side effects of carbon sequestration, and particularly the ability of the Port of Caddo-Bossier from imposing its will in those two parishes.

In 2021, a law was passed that basically gave the Port Commission, an appointive body chosen by area governments, the ability to make economic development deals anywhere in the two parishes without oversight by other elected officials and bodies. Other local governments could not have any input into those deals, or even know any details about these in the negotiating phase. This included tax abatements that could detract from revenues of these governments.

Nat'l food, Venezuela policies to pay off for LA

You win some, you lose some. Louisiana had that reinforced with recent developments about its sugar and oil industries.

This week, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced a new, and radical, change in its guidelines for nutrition. Principally, it pivots away from processed food and other suggestions that invoked sugar-composed consumption.

That’s not so good for Louisiana sugar production, which leads the country. And it could be significant because, although not a lot of consumers will base their shopping choices on the 2025-30 dietary guidelines, promised cooperation with the Department of Agriculture’s nutrition programs — which send $400 million a day out the door — will affect what foodstuffs can be purchased, which affects demand, which affects producers.

Landry going to Nuuk as Trump jacks up more wheels

So, Mr. Landry is going to Nuuk, as part of Republican Pres. Donald Trump’s larger foreign policy goals that risk driving purveyors of conventional wisdom and unimaginative analysts and journalists to the brink of madness.

Louisiana’s GOP governor was appointed as a special envoy to Greenland late last year, and he says he’s going to make a trip there in a couple of months to rap with Greenlanders about how their independence leading to closer association with the U.S. can make their lives better. In fact, there he’s been invited to the world’s largest dogsledding event (although if he pilots a sled, beware).

That must irk Danish authorities a bit, especially as they can’t stop Landry from visiting and spreading this gospel. With Greenland existing as an autonomous entity loosely associated with Denmark and as part of the 2009 revisions to that status, it gained the ability to admit nationals of other states without Danish oversight. In essence, Landry will argue that an association deal that Greenland and its roughly 57,000 residents can get with the U.S. will top that from what Denmark does and could provide.

Startling new growth chances to challenge LPSC

The Louisiana Public Service Commission acted correctly on streamlining the vetting process of large power customers, but it shouldn’t get too far ahead in boosting the state’s competitiveness for economic development that may hike needlessly rates for all, leaving commissioners in a tough political spot.

Last month, the LPSC revamped how it evaluates power providers’ requests to bring on new customers, specifically designed for those with large demands. This change was held out as a competition measure, enticing such customers by cutting red tape and thereby speeding up rendering a decision.

Now, the provider that has gained the most to date by adding large customers, Entergy Louisiana, has signaled intent to add another such payee and in conjunction with that also seeks approval to upgrade transmission capacity. This mechanics of these proposals differ from the one that dominated discussions last year, the Hyperion project in Richland Parish, in that ratepayers in Entergy’s footprint would pay for a much higher proportion of the project.

Bossier Jury breaking laws over library board

The new year marks just on two years that the Bossier Parish Police Jury has been breaking the law concerning how it governs its libraries, and it gives no indication it’s going to stop doing that any time soon.

Mark Jan. 10, 2024 as the day the Jury began to rack up legal violations. Statute places library governance in the hands of a library board of control for municipalities and, in this case, parishes. R.S. 25:215 states that the board of control shall have authority to establish rules and regulations for its own government and that of the library not inconsistent with law. This includes employing and evaluating the library director, establishing and adopting written library policies, working to secure adequate funding for the library system, adopting the library system’s annual budget, and takes responsibility for providing and maintaining library facilities, resources, and services.

The governing authority, in this case the Jury, has its involvement defined largely in R.S. 25:214. It appoints members to the board and, through R.S. 33:1415 mentioned in this statute and R.S. 25:220.1, also exercisers budgetary and fiscal control that includes approval of annual operating budgets with the right to veto or reduce line-items and vet for approval any submission to the people to levy any tax or issue any bonds. In succeeding sections, statutes say that the head librarian (synonymous with director of libraries) and the Jury are to deliver an annual report, the Jury must pay expenses monthly for the library out of any special tax levied for that purpose and if insufficient its general fund, and must approve of any gifts received for the library system while the board must approve of any expenditures from these.

Court schedule may challenge nat'l GOP, Landry

Unless they get a satisfactory judicial ruling within the next couple of weeks, it looks like Louisiana will end up using its current congressional map, which may challenge Republicans nationally and GOP Gov. Jeff Landry specifically.

The country waits upon the U.S. Supreme Court to decide in Callais v. Louisiana, which fundamentally could change how reapportionment for legislative bodies occurs. The case itself directly addresses Louisiana’s present congressional map, which is built on the assumption that unless the proportion of districts that have a minority-majority (of blacks) is roughly equivalent to the (black) minority proportion in the population (where “black” is defined as someone claiming descendancy from a black person), it is assumed racial discrimination is occurring in the drawing of that map.

Callais challenges the ability of the federal government to use statute (specifically, Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act) to enforce this, calling it a contravention of the Constitution’s 14^th Amendment. The Court head the case in October, and when it issues a decision is anybody’s guess.