Louisiana issues only two medical marijuana grower licenses each year. They are currently held by LSU and Southern University. That’s been required by law since the state enacted its medical marijuana program in 2015.
Source: Louisiana Illuminator
Christiaan Mader
Christiaan Mader founded The Current in 2018, reviving the brand from a short-lived culture magazine he created for Lafayette publisher INDMedia. An award-winning investigative and culture journalist, Christiaan’s work as a writer and reporter has appeared in The New York Times, Vice, Offbeat, Gambit, and The Advocate.
Changes in state law require 17-year-old inmates to be imprisoned at adult facilities. Local jails, already struggling with capacity problems, have not sorted out how to handle that transition.
Source: The Advocate
The Louisiana Voodoo was set to use Lafayette’s Blackham Coliseum for home games. The team had already relocated from Lake Charles as the fledgeling league has struggled with game cancellations and more.
Source: LA Illuminator
The department’s command staff was notified in a meeting this morning that Judith Estorge stepped down as chief Wednesday but will remain in the department with the rank of captain, KLFY reports.
Source: KLFY
Our Lady of Lourdes Health will invest $100 million across its campuses over the next three to five years, the system announced this week. The first phase targets upgrades to neonatal intensive care unit at Women & Children’s Hospital, which Lourdes acquired in 2019 from hospital giant HCA.
Source: The Advertiser
The order allows the use of a map that has majority Black populations in two of the state’s six congressional districts, potentially boosting Democrats’ chances of gaining control of the closely divided House of Representatives in the 2024 elections.
Source: KLFY
Lawmakers could still reach a compromise that more tightly regulates the products to keep them from consumers younger than 21 but prevent an industry shutdown through Democratic Lafayette Rep. Dustin Miller’s House Bill 952, which has cleared the House and awaits its first committee hearing in the Senate.
Source: The Advertiser
In a 4-3 ruling in March, the state’s highest court had said the law conflicted with due process rights in the state constitution.
Source: WWNO
A state senator killed a bill Monday that would have blanketed the governor’s office in exemptions from freedom-of-information requests.
Source: The Advocate
Temperatures are already trending above average this year. The first true heat wave moved through the state this week lifting daytime highs into the 90s. And forecasters expect the coming months to follow suit.
Source: The Advocate
Rep. Beau Beaullieu, R-New Iberia, the lawmaker carrying the legislation calling for a constitutional convention, said his conservative colleagues want to leave in the “Defense of Marriage” section just in case the landmark 2015 civil rights case Obergefell v. Hodges, which legalized same-sex marriage nationwide, is overturned.
Source: LA Illuminator
Lawmakers have yet to provide any funding for what proponents label education savings accounts (ESAs), perhaps an indication of waning support for the legislation.
Source: Louisiana Illuminator