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BATON ROUGE, LA. (AP) — A new Louisiana requirement that the Ten Commandments be displayed in all public classrooms is "unconstitutional on its face," a federal judge ruled Tuesday, ordering state education officials not to take steps to enforce it and to notify all local school boards in the state of his decision. U.S. District Judge John W. deGravelles in Baton Rouge said the law had an "overtly religious" purpose, and rejected state officials' claims that the government can mandate the posting of the Ten Commandments because they hold histor...
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Francine has strengthened into a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico and is advancing toward Louisiana. The National Hurricane Center said Tuesday night that Francine powered up its maximum sustained winds to 75 mph and gained hurricane status about 350 miles southwest of Morgan City, Louisiana. A hurricane warning is in effect along the Louisiana coast from the border with Texas eastward to Grand Isle, about 50 miles south of New Orleans. Storm surge warnings also are in effect in Texas and Louisiana. Francine is the s...
MORGAN CITY, La. (AP) — Hurricane Francine barreled toward Louisiana on Wednesday as residents made last-minute trips to stock up on supplies and forecasters warned of potentially deadly storm surge, widespread flooding and destructive winds on the northern U.S. Gulf coast. In Morgan City, gas stations had put plywood on the windows and moved trash cans inside, with a few pumps still serving the trickle of cars passing through shortly after dawn. Retired boat captain Pat Simon, 75, and his wife, Ruth, loaded all their possessions in garbage b...
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Tropical Storm Francine formed in the Gulf of Mexico on Monday and was expected to drench the Texas coast with rain before coming ashore in Louisiana as a hurricane on Wednesday night. "We're going to have a very dangerous situation developing by the time we get into Wednesday for portions of the north-central Gulf Coast, primarily along the coast of Louisiana, where we're going to see the potential for life-threatening storm surge inundation and hurricane force winds," said Michael Brennan, director of the U.S. N...
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Tropical Storm Francine was strengthening in the Gulf of Mexico on Monday, drenching coastal Mexico and Texas on its way to hit Louisiana as a hurricane on Wednesday night. "We're going to have a very dangerous situation developing by the time we get into Wednesday for portions of the north-central Gulf Coast, primarily along the coast of Louisiana, where we're going to see the potential for life-threatening storm surge inundation and hurricane-force winds," said Michael Brennan, director of the U.S. National H...
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Even as a legal challenge is already underway over a new Louisiana law requiring the Ten Commandments to be displayed in classrooms, the details of how the mandate will be implemented and enforced remain murky. Across the country there have been conservative pushes to incorporate religion into classrooms, from Florida legislation allowing school districts to have volunteer chaplains to counsel students to Oklahoma's top education official ordering public schools to incorporate the Bible into lessons. In Louisiana, the l...
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A bill signed into law this week makes Louisiana the only state to require that the Ten Commandments be displayed in every classroom in public schools and colleges — and stirs the long-running debate over the role of religion in government institutions. Under the new law, all public K-12 classrooms and state-funded universities will be required to display a poster-sized display of the Ten Commandments in "large, easily readable font" next year. Civil liberties groups planned lawsuits to block the law signed by Republican Gov....
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Civil liberties groups filed a lawsuit Monday to block Louisiana's new law that requires the Ten Commandments to be displayed in every public school classroom, a measure they contend is unconstitutional. Plaintiffs in the suit include parents of Louisiana public school children, represented by attorneys with the American Civil Liberties Union, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and the Freedom From Religion Foundation. Under the legislation signed into law by Republican Gov. Jeff Landry last week, a...
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — In an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Louisiana officials announced on Monday two new projects that are expected to remove hundreds of thousands of tons of carbon dioxide from the air per year and store it deep underground. The new sites announced in northwest Louisiana, by direct air capture company Heirloom, are the latest in a slew of carbon removal and storage projects that have been announced in Louisiana, a state that has had a front row seat to the impacts of climate change. Proponents say this type o...
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana has become the first state to require that the Ten Commandments be displayed in every public school classroom under a bill signed into law by Republican Gov. Jeff Landry on Wednesday. The GOP-drafted legislation mandates that a poster-sized display of the Ten Commandments in "large, easily readable font" be required in all public classrooms, from kindergarten to state-funded universities. Opponents question the law's constitutionality, warning that lawsuits are likely to follow. Proponents say the purpose of t...
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — President Joe Biden announced Wednesday that federal disaster assistance is available for Louisiana, which is working to slow a mass inflow of salt water creeping up the Mississippi River and threatening drinking water supplies in the southern part of the state. Biden's action authorizes the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate all disaster relief efforts, according to a news release from the White House. Additionally, the declaration will allow for more equipment, r...
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana, typically one of the wettest states in the country, is on fire. In communities often challenged by flooding and hurricanes this time of year, firefighters instead are fending off 300-foot-tall (91.44 meters) blazes during an unprecedented wildfire season, which isn't even halfway over. Stoked by record-breaking heat, drought and plentiful dry vegetation to fuel the flames, more than 550 fires — in August alone — ravaged tens of thousands of acres of Louisiana land, engulfed homes and forced entire towns to ev...
FARMERVILLE, La. (AP) — A Louisiana grand jury began hearing evidence Monday in the deadly 2019 arrest of Ronald Greene, long-awaited testimony that will determine whether state charges are brought against the white troopers seen on body-camera video stunning, striking and dragging the Black motorist by his ankle shackles following a high-speed chase. Prosecutors planned to present a wide range of felony counts related to the troopers' use of force and their decision to leave the heavyset Greene handcuffed and prone for several minutes b...
BLY, Ore. (AP) — Fierce wildfires in the Pacific Northwest are threatening Native American lands that already are struggling to conserve water and preserve traditional hunting grounds amid a historic drought in the U.S. West. Blazes in Oregon and Washington state were among some 60 large, active wildfires that have destroyed homes and burned through about 1,562 square miles (4,047 square kilometers) in a dozen mostly Western states, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. It comes as extremely dry conditions and heat waves tied to cl...
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — More than 100,000 customers remained without power Thursday in Oregon, a week after a massive snow and ice storm swept into the Pacific Northwest and brought the “most dangerous conditions” seen by utility workers. Maria Pope, the CEO of Portland General Electric, said during a news conference Thursday that she expects power to be restored to more than 90% of the remaining customers who are still in the dark by the end of Friday. “Customers in this final stretch are those at the epicenter of the storm — people who have...
SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Oregon Gov. Kate Brown declared a state of emergency Friday as she announced that state troopers and sheriff's deputies would be sent to Portland through the weekend to help police, in the state's largest city, monitor a weekend rally by the right-wing group Proud Boys and counter protests by liberal groups Portland has been roiled by often violent protests for more than three months following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Demonstrations that went into a lull during Oregon's recent wildfires resumed t...
