Ruling on Louisiana abortion ban expected Tuesday
A temporary restraining order preventing Louisiana’s abortion ban from being enforced will remain in effect pending a decision.
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News + Notes
A Lafayette Consolidated Government contractor blocked the Vermilion River for hours without a permit while removing the Cypress Island Swamp spoil banks in February, potentially violating federal law.
Messages, design plans and videos obtained in a public records request show LCG contractor Rigid Constructors blocked the Vermilion River with four massive barges during the clandestine removal of the spoil banks in St. Martin Parish.
Source: The Advertiser
The museum, located downtown on Jefferson Street, will be renamed the University of Louisiana at Lafayette Science Museum as part of the agreement. The university plans to expand exhibitions, programs and resources, including a cafe, gift shop and public event rental option.
Source: The Advertiser
FMOLHS issued a four-sentence statement late Wednesday afternoon that Healy-Collier “has concluded her tenure with the organization,” the statement read, and chief operating officer Donna Landry would serve as interim Acadiana market president.
Source: The Advocate
Three more women have sued the Louisiana Board of Regents and the systems for LSU and the University of Louisiana, saying they were sexually assaulted by the same man between 2015 and 2021 and that university officials failed to intervene.
Their lawsuit, filed Wednesday in federal court, is the second in recent months to focus on how universities handled reports against Victor Daniel Silva, a 2020 UL graduate.
Source: The Advocate
No boundaries: LCG may have violated charter in spoil banks land purchase
A success in LCG’s eyes, the overnight operation may have violated state law, federal law, a St. Martin Parish ordinance and, it now appears, Lafayette’s Home Rule Charter.
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Louisiana abortion ban blocked once again by judge pending Monday hearing
Judge Don Johnson issued the temporary restraining order Tuesday in 19th Judicial District Court, prohibiting Attorney General Jeff Landry and Louisiana Department of Health Secretary Courtney Phillips from enforcing the state’s abortion ban.
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[Jim] Henderson, who oversees nine different higher education campuses in the UL system, said he doesn’t expect any major changes to the tenure system.
Source: Louisiana Illuminator
In Lafayette, single family homes available for rent are nearly nonexistent. Among the 530 properties managed by Keaty Real Estate, at one point in mid-May only 16 were available, property manager Amy Green said. Several landlords over the past two years got out of the rental business and sold their properties, shrinking the supply of properties.
Source: theadvocate.com
Southern states have led the charge in overturning abortion rights. But many of these states have also seen some of the highest rates of maternal deaths and child poverty.
From 2012-2016, Louisiana had the highest maternal mortality rate in the U.S. with 58.9 deaths per 100,000 births, followed by Georgia with 48.4 deaths, according to a 2018 USA TODAY investigation analyzing state health data.
Source: USA Today
Housing advocates have pushed for new shelter space since the pandemic. Lafayette lacks shelter beds and affordable housing.
Lafayette’s City Council may spend $1 million to help build a new shelter for people experiencing homelessness this month as the area’s unhoused population continues to grow. The Acadiana Regional Coalition on Homelessness and Housing is set to receive $1 million in federal stimulus money from the city if the City Council approves Councilman Glenn Lazard’s bid to do so at its next meeting on July 19.
Source: The Daily Advertiser
“If you don’t like the laws of the states, you can move to one under which you like,” AG Jeff Landry told reporters after the decision. “That’s the greatness of America.”
A Orleans Parish judge has removed a temporary order blocking Louisiana’s ban on nearly all abortions from taking effect while moving a lawsuit that challenges the state’s abortion law to Baton Rouge. Judge Ethel Julien’s decision effectively closes the three clinics in Louisiana that provide abortion services.
Source: Louisiana Illuminator