Charlie D’Agata goes inside a training exercise at Fort Johnson in Louisiana with the Army’s 101st Airborne Division to see how they’re preparing for future conflicts.
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If you’re thinking about moving to Louisiana, bustling cities like New Orleans or Baton Rouge might come to mind. However, this state has much more to offer. From quaint downtowns to festivals that bring the community together, Louisiana’s small towns are perfect for anyone looking to experience what life is like in its quieter corners. In this Redfin article, we’ll discuss 8 charming small towns in Louisiana, each with their own unique character and plenty of reasons to call home.
Jennings is often called the birthplace of the state’s oil industry because the first oil well in Louisiana was drilled here in 1901. The town celebrates this history with the Zigler Museum. The museum features local art, artifacts, and exhibitions on the town’s early oil days. Every summer, Jennings hosts the Jeff Davis Parish Fair, where locals gather for rides, games, and delicious Cajun cuisine. Lake Arthur, just a short drive away, offers scenic views and recreational activities like boating and fishing, making it a favorite weekend escape.
Natchitoches is the oldest settlement in the Louisiana Purchase. The town’s annual Natchitoches Christmas Festival lights up the downtown with parades, fireworks, and thousands of twinkling lights. Cane River Lake winds through the town, with serene views and opportunities for boating and fishing. Locals and tourists enjoy strolling along Front Street, where the cobblestone streets are lined with boutique shops, cafes, and restaurants serving local Creole cuisine
Home to the famous Robertson family of “Duck Dynasty” fame, West Monroe is a hub of Southern culture and hospitality. Indulge your taste buds at the Landry Vineyards, where you can try award-winning wines against the backdrop of rolling vineyards. The town’s Antique Alley is a popular destination for those looking to explore shops with vintage finds, antiques, and local crafts.
Donaldsonville was once the state capital from 1829 to 1831. Every June, Donaldsonville celebrates the Juneteenth Music Festival with live music, food, and cultural performances. Situated along the Mississippi River, the town has scenic views and opportunities for riverfront activities, making it a must-visit destination in southern Louisiana.
Franklin is a town known for its beautifully preserved architecture and moss-draped oak trees lining the Bayou Teche. Franklin’s close-knit community enjoys local events such as the Harvest Moon Festival, which showcases local artisans, live music, and food vendors. For outdoor enthusiasts, the nearby Atchafalaya Basin provides opportunities for kayaking, fishing, and birdwatching.
Known as the “Crawfish Capital of the World,” Breaux Bridge celebrates its Cajun heritage through food, music, and lively festivals. The annual Breaux Bridge Crawfish Festival draws visitors from across the country to enjoy crawfish dishes, live Zydeco music, and dance contests. The town’s downtown features boutique shops and cafes, where locals and visitors alike enjoy the laid-back atmosphere.
Eunice is a hub for Cajun music and culture, earning its reputation as the home of traditional Cajun music. The town’s Prairie Acadian Cultural Center gives visitors a chance to explore the history of Cajun and Creole cultures through interactive exhibits and live music performances. Every Saturday, the Liberty Theater hosts the “Rendez-vous des Cajuns,” a live radio show that features Cajun music and dancing. Eunice is also home to the annual World Championship Crawfish Étouffée Cook-off, where locals compete to make the best version of this beloved dish.
Bastrop, located in northeastern Louisiana, is a small town with a strong agricultural history and a deep connection to the outdoors. The nearby Chemin-A-Haut State Park offers visitors a chance to explore beautiful hiking trails, scenic bayous, and opportunities for camping and fishing. Bastrop is also known for its local farmers’ markets, where fresh produce and homemade goods are available year-round.
Methodology: The median home sale price and average monthly rental data is from the Redfin Data Center.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — School districts in California will have to create rules restricting student smartphone use under a new law Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Monday.
The legislation makes California the latest state to try to curb student phone access in an effort to minimize distractions in the classroom and address the mental health impacts of social media on children. Florida, Louisiana, Indiana and several other states have passed laws aimed at restricting student phone use at school.
“This new law will help students focus on academics, social development, and the world in front of them, not their screens, when they’re in school,” Newsom said in a statement.
But some critics of phone restriction policies say the burden should not fall on teachers to enforce them. Others worry the rules will make it harder for students to seek help if there is an emergency or argue that decisions on phone bans should be left up to individual districts or schools.
“We support those districts that have already acted independently to implement restrictions because, after a review of the needs of their stakeholders, they determined that made the most sense for their communities with regards to safety, school culture and academic achievement,” said Troy Flint, a spokesperson for the California School Boards Association. “We simply oppose the mandate.”
The law requires districts to pass rules by July 1, 2026, to limit or ban students from using smartphones on campus or while students are under the supervision of school staff. Districts will have to update their policies every five years after that.
The move comes after Newsom signed a law in 2019 authorizing school districts to restrict student phone access. In June, he announced plans to take on the issue again after the U.S. surgeon general called on Congress to require warning labels on social media platforms and their effects on young people.
The governor then sent letters to districts last month, urging them to limit student device use on campus. That came on a day that the board for the second-largest school district in the country, Los Angeles Unified, voted to ban student phone use during the school day beginning in January.
Assemblymember Josh Hoover, a Republican representing Folsom, introduced the bill with a bipartisan group of lawmakers who are also parents.
Phones are restricted where Hoover’s children — ages 15, 12 and 10 — attend school. Many of the students don’t always like the policy, which is in part a reflection of how addictive phones can be, he said.
“Anytime you’re talking about interrupting that addiction, it’s certainly going to be hard for students sometimes,” Hoover said. “But I think overall they understand why it’s important, why it helps them focus better on their classes and why it actually helps them have better social interaction with their peers face to face when they’re at school.”
Some parents have raised concerns that school cellphone bans could cut them off from their children if there is an emergency. Those fears were highlighted after a shooting at a Georgia high school left four dead and nine injured this month.
The 2019 law authorizing districts to restrict student phone access makes exceptions for emergencies, and the new law doesn’t change that. Some proponents of school phone restrictions say it’s better to have phones off in an active shooter situation, so that they don’t ring and reveal a student’s location.
Teachers have reported seeing students more engaged since the Santa Barbara Unified School District began fully implementing a ban on student phone use in class during the 2023-24 school year, Assistant Superintendent ShaKenya Edison said.
Nick Melvoin, a Los Angeles Unified board member who introduced the district’s resolution, said passing the policies at the district or state level can help prevent students from feeling like they’re missing out on what’s going on on social media.
Before student cellphone use was banned during the school day at Sutter Middle School in Folsom, students had been seen recording fights, filming TikTok challenges and spending lunchtime looking at online content, Principal Tarik McFall said. The rule has “totally changed the culture” of the school so that students spend more time talking to one another, he said.
“To have them put away, to have them power off and that be a practice, it has been a great thing,” McFall said.
Teachers have become more reliant in recent years on technology as a learning tool for students, particularly since the COVID-19 pandemic, said Mara Harvey, a social studies teacher at Discovery High School in the Natomas Unified School District.
The district, which is in Sacramento, provides students in the first through 12th grades with a Chromebook, where they can access online textbooks and Google Classroom, a platform where teachers share class materials. But if a student forgets their Chromebook at home, their smartphone becomes “the next viable choice for them to access the curriculum,” Harvey said.
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Austin is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Austin on X: @sophieadanna
In some areas, homes are such great a risk that they’re too expensive to insure — if private insurance is even available at all.
How much does the average person spend on home insurance?
Home insurance premiums are intended to be cheaper than what it would cost to rebuild your home after a disaster or major damage. That cost is based on numerous factors, including home size and claim history, but it’s also based on location — and as extreme weather events driven by climate change bring a greater risk of floods, severe storms, hurricanes and heat waves, among other things, that location matters more than ever.
Bankrate has found that the average cost of dwelling insurance, which covers the actual structure of your home should it need to be rebuilt, is $2,285 per year in the U.S. for a policy with a $300,000 limit. But that cost is still rising.
“From 2017 to 2022, homeowners insurance premiums rose 40% faster than inflation,” a June report by the Bipartisan Policy Center says. “…For millions of households already struggling to make their mortgage payments, these monthly insurance costs are a significant burden. They can also put homeownership out of reach for prospective first-time homebuyers.”
The range of homeowners’ insurance costs is widespread. In Vermont, Bankrate data shows that people pay an average of $67 a month for a $300,000 dwelling limit, while in Nebraska, the most expensive home insurance state, people pay an average of $471 per month — an annual policy that amounts to more than $3,300 above the national average.
Other parts of insurance coverage are not included in these amounts, such as other structures, personal property and loss of use, which are typically listed as coverage B, C and D, respectively, in coverage policies. And depending on your location, you may also need separate deductibles for wind or storm damage, will likely be determined based on a percentage of your dwelling coverage.
“While inflation has slowed down since its peak in June 2022, insurance rates are reactionary,” Bankrate said in its September report. “The cost of home insurance is still increasing due to the impact inflation has had on the previous losses experienced by the insurance company, the elevated cost of building materials and the high likelihood of future extreme weather-related losses.”
Home location matters for insurance costs
Across the U.S., people are dealing with risk of earthquakes, tornadoes, floods, hurricanes, wildfires and severe storms across the seasons. In California, which, as of Sept. 17, is battling six active wildfires, the growing risk of such events has left some areas “essentially ‘uninsurable‘,” according to researchers at First Street Foundation, a nonprofit that studies climate risks. The group found that about 35.6 million properties — a quarter of all U.S. real estate — are facing higher insurance costs and lower coverage because of climate risks.
That combination also devalues their properties.
San Bernardino County, which accounts for six out of the 10 worst ZIP codes in the state for insurance non-renewals, is also among the most at-risk of natural hazards and climate change, according to FEMA. The county in Southern California is currently combatting both the Bridge and Line Fires, which combined have burned more than 93,000 acres.
The fire risk in California — which has also been battling the historically large Park Fire for nearly two months — is now so high that both Allstate and State Farm have paused sales of property and casualty coverage to new customers in the state.
“The cost to insure new home customers in California is far higher than the price they would pay for policies due to wildfires, higher costs for repairing homes, and higher reinsurance premiums,” Allstate told CBS News.
AAA is also opting out of renewing some policies in Florida, a state that has seen increasingly devastating impacts of flooding and hurricanes. Without private insurance offers, it’s up to insurance policies made available by the government, such as the the National Flood Insurance Program, to assist.
It’s not just an issue for coastal areas and wildfire-prone states. In fact, the most impactful weather events are those that do not get categorized with names.
The Insurance Information Institute found in a May 2020 report that severe convective storms — thunderstorms — “are the most common and damaging natural catastrophes in the United States.” Tornadoes are often a product of those storms, and Nebraska, the most expensive home insurance state on average, was impacted by five of the top 10 costliest U.S. catastrophes involving tornadoes, according to the report.
There have already been 20 billion-dollar disasters nationwide so far this year, as of Sept. 10, with 14 of those involving severe weather or tornadoes.
This map shows the confirmed billion-dollar weather and climate disaster events that have already occurred in the U.S. in 2024.
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information
But Bankrate has also found that more than a quarter of homeowners say they aren’t financially prepared to handle the costs that come with it.
And it’s not just homeowners. While last year was not the worst year for overall U.S. insured losses due to extreme weather, it was the worst year since at least 2014 for losses due to severe storms ($59.2 billion), according to data by AON.
Renters are feeling those impacts as well.
Between 2020 and 2023, multifamily housing development insurance rates increased by an average of 12.5% annually, according to a June report by the Bipartisan Policy Center.
“One affordable housing provider, National Church Residences, saw its property insurance premiums increase by over 400% in the six years leading up to 2023, along with higher deductibles and reduced coverage,” the report says. National Church Residences provides affordable housing and independent and assisted living to seniors.
Last fall, NDP Analytics surveyed 418 housing providers across the U.S. who operate a combined 2.7 million units, including 1.7 million affordable housing units. They found that nearly a third of them saw premium increases of 25% or more from 2022 to 2023. To handle those costs, over 93% of respondents said they’d have to increase their deductibles, decrease operating expenses and/or increase rent. More than half said they would need to limit or delay investments in housing stock and projects.
How to lower home insurance costs
The driver behind extreme weather events — rising global temperatures largely fueled by the burning of fossil fuels — is not going away anytime soon. The continued release of greenhouse gases that trap heat within the atmosphere will continue to heat up the planet for thousands of years to come, even if overuse of those gases stopped today, which means that there are still decades to come of worsening climate disasters putting lives and homes at risk.
But home insurance is a game of measuring risk, and there are things you can do to better protect your home that could help lessen the blow of future weather disasters.
According to Massachusetts insurance agency C&S Insurance, resilient home features can make an impact on premium pricing. Storm shutters, reinforced roofing and flood barriers can all help lower the risk of damage to your house, and therefore, your wallet.
NerdWallet says that elevating your home’s water heaters and electrical panels, developing wildfire-resilient landscaping and installing fortified roofing are among the things homeowners can do to reduce the impacts of flooding, fires and wind, respectively.
The Council on Foreign Relations, an independent nonpartisan organization, says that more government regulations on where and how homes can be built can also help reduce the costs. The group says that stopping taxpayer dollars for buildings in high-risk areas and more investment in natural infrastructure, such as wetlands and trees, can also help reduce impacts from storm surges and heat.
Li Cohen is a senior social media producer at CBS News. She previously wrote for amNewYork and The Seminole Tribune. She mainly covers climate, environmental and weather news.
You never know what’s lurking in the floodwaters after a hurricane.Officials in Louisiana’s St. Tammany Parish posted a photo on Facebook on Thursday, showing an alligator swimming in the floodwaters.Related video above: Drone video shows flooding caused by Hurricane Francine“We’re not sure what his mission was, but our Public Works crews decided to keep their distance as they checked flooded roads,” officials said in the Facebook post. “If you see a flooded road, keep your distance, too! You may never know what hazards lurk beneath the water.”Hurricane Francine made landfall in Terrebonne Parish Wednesday, bringing heavy rain and major flooding.
You never know what’s lurking in the floodwaters after a hurricane.
Officials in Louisiana’s St. Tammany Parish posted a photo on Facebook on Thursday, showing an alligator swimming in the floodwaters.
Related video above: Drone video shows flooding caused by Hurricane Francine
“We’re not sure what his mission was, but our Public Works crews decided to keep their distance as they checked flooded roads,” officials said in the Facebook post. “If you see a flooded road, keep your distance, too! You may never know what hazards lurk beneath the water.”
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Hurricane Francine made landfall in Terrebonne Parish Wednesday, bringing heavy rain and major flooding.
Francine slammed into the Louisiana coast Wednesday evening as a dangerous Category 2 hurricane that knocked out electricity to tens of thousands of customers and threatened widespread flooding as it sent a potentially deadly storm surge rushing inland along the Gulf Coast. Despite quickly weakening to a tropical storm, it was packing a strong punch.
Francine crashed ashore in Terrebonne Parish, about 30 miles southwest of Morgan City, the National Hurricane Center announced at 4 p.m. CDT. Packing maximum sustained winds near 100 mph, the storm then battered a fragile coastal region that hasn’t fully recovered from a series of devastating hurricanes in 2020 and 2021.
Morgan City Fire Chief Alvin Cockerham said Francine quickly flooded streets, snapped power lines and sent tree limbs crashing down.
The entrance to Lake Ponchartrain Causeway is closed due to Hurricane Francine in Metairie, La., Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024. The causeway is the longest continuous bridge over water in the world.
Matthew Hinton / AP
“It’s a little bit worse than what I expected to be honest with you,” Cockerham said of the onslaught. “I pulled all my trucks back to the station; it’s too dangerous to be out there in this.”
There were no immediate reports of deaths or injuries.
More than 330,000 customers were without power across Louisiana Wednesday night, according to utility tracker PowerOutage.us.
TV news broadcasts from Louisiana’s coastal communities showed waves from nearby lakes, rivers and Gulf waters thrashing sea walls. Water poured into city streets and neighborhoods amid blinding downpours. Oak and cypress trees leaned in the high winds, and some utility poles swayed back and forth.
Hardest hit by the blackouts was Terrebonne Parish near where the storm’s center hit land, as well as neighboring St. Mary Parish that includes Morgan City.
Det. Lt. David Spencer, a spokesperson for the St. Mary Parish Sheriff’s Office, told CBS News in an email that the parish was “seeing more flooding than originally predicted.”
Spencer said the area was experiencing downed trees and power lines and damage to homes.
“We have had some roofs severely damaged and even gone,” Spencer wrote, adding that there were no reports of injuries.
Francine was centered about 35 miles northwest of New Orleans and had maximum sustained winds of 70 mph as of late Wednesday night, according to the hurricane center. It was moving northeast at 16 mph.
Sheltering at her mother’s home just outside Morgan City, Laura Leftwich said blasts of wind had swept away two large birdhouses outside. She had a generator powering an internet connection so she could video chat with friends, holding her computer to a window to show them water overflowing in the street.
If the storm had been any more intense, “I wouldn’t have the guts to look outside,” said Leftwich, 40. “It’s a little scary.”
Louisiana braces for the worst
Terrebonne Parish President Jason Bergeron told CBS News on Wednesday that the levies were holding, but the water is rising.
“The ground is saturated with water, and as the levy system is closed that water has a harder time getting out, except for some areas that have some pumps,” Bergeron said.
Sheltering at her mother’s home just outside Morgan City, Laura Leftwich said blasts of wind had swept away two large birdhouses outside. She had a generator powering an internet connection so she could video chat with friends, holding her computer to a window to show them water overflowing in the street.
If the storm had been any more intense, “I wouldn’t have the guts to look outside,” said Leftwich, 40. “It’s a little scary.”
The National Hurricane Center urged residents to stay sheltered overnight as Francine blows inland. The storm’s projected path included New Orleans, where forecasters said the storm’s eye could pass through.
Floodwater fills a neighborhood on September 11, 2024 in Houma, Louisiana. Hurricane Francine has been upgraded to a Category 2 hurricane and made landfall along the Louisiana coast.
Brandon Bell / Getty Images
“Conditions are going to go downhill really rapidly over the next couple of hours,” Jamie Rhome, the hurricane center’s deputy director, said in an online briefing prior to landfall. “It’s not going to be a good night to be driving on the roads, especially when the sun goes down.”
Bands of heavy rain began pelting New Orleans on Wednesday morning and were expected to intensify with the approach of Francine. New Orleans could see up to 10 inches of rain, putting the city’s water pump and drainage system to the test.
“Stay inside, hunker down,” New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell said in a news briefing Wednesday. “Now is the time, between now as well as moving into midnight.”
A flash flood emergency was declared for New Orleans, Metairie and Kenner until 11:45 p.m. local time, the National Weather Service said.
Francine expected to weaken rapidly
Francine drew fuel from exceedingly warm Gulf of Mexico waters, strengthening to a Category 2 storm hours before landfall, the National Hurricane Center said. Category 2 hurricanes are classified as having winds of between 96 to 110 mph that are capable of extensive damage.
Still dangerous, the hurricane began weakening as it rushed inland, dropping in less than two hours back to a Category 1 storm with top winds of 85 mph. Francine continued moving northeast at a fast clip of 17 mph on a path toward New Orleans, about 55 miles away.
A road is blocked off ahead of Hurricane Francine’s arrival on Sept. 11, 2024, in Dulac, Louisiana.
Brandon Bell / Getty Images
It was forecast to weaken further while pushing northward through Mississippi on Thursday, with widespread rains in the coming days bringing potential flash flooding to cities including Jackson, Mississippi; Birmingham, Alabama; Memphis, Tennessee; and Atlanta. It also raised the threat of spin-off tornadoes.
Much of Louisiana and Mississippi could get 4 to 8 inches of rain, with the possibility of 12 inches in some spots, said Brad Reinhart, a senior hurricane specialist at the hurricane center.
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry said the National Guard would fan out to parishes impacted by Francine. They have food, water, nearly 400 high-water vehicles, about 100 boats and 50 helicopters to respond to the storm, including for possible search-and-rescue operations.
Louisianans have experience with hurricanes
Since the mid-19th century, some 57 hurricanes have tracked over or made landfall in Louisiana, according to The Weather Channel. Among them are some of the strongest, costliest and deadliest storms in U.S. history.
Morgan City, home to around 11,500 people, sits on the banks of the Atchafalaya River in south Louisiana and is surrounded by lakes and marsh. It’s described on the city’s website as “gateway to the Gulf of Mexico for the shrimping and oilfield industries.”
Luis Morfin, 26, left his RV camper outside Morgan City’s levee to hunker down at a friend’s home Wednesday night. Winds lashed the windows as they watching a TV powered by a generator. The power was out, but they were prepared to cook with steaks and potatoes on a propane stove.
“We knew what we were expecting,” Morfin said. “I don’t know how good my camper is, but we’ll figure that out tomorrow.”
President Biden granted an emergency declaration to help Louisiana secure expedited federal money and assistance. Landry and Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves also declared states of emergency.
A hurricane warning was in effect along the Louisiana coast from Cameron east to Grand Isle, about 50 miles south of New Orleans, according to the Miami-based hurricane center. A storm surge warning stretched from the Mississippi-Alabama border to the Alabama-Florida border.
The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency said it distributed more than 100,000 sandbags to the southern part of the state and the Department of Education reported a number of school district closures for Wednesday and Thursday.
The sixth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, Francine had prompted storm surge warnings on the Louisiana coast of as much as 10 feet from Cameron to Port Fourchon and into Vermilion Bay, forecasters said.
A tropical disturbance in the southwestern Gulf of Mexico was shaping up as what could be the season’s next hurricane, the National Hurricane Center said early Monday. It would be called Francine and end a brief lull that hurricane-prone regions were enjoying.
The hurricane center said the system is expected to become a tropical storm Monday and a hurricane before it makes landfall, likely over the northwestern U.S. Gulf shoreline Wednesday, bringing with it an “increasing risk of life-threatening storm surge and hurricane-force winds along the Louisiana and upper-Texas coasts.”
A tropical disturbance forecasters say could become Hurricane Francine within days as seen from a satellite early on September 9, 2024.
NOAA / National Hurricane Center
The system was expected to dump 4-8 inches of rain in many areas and up to a foot in some places, forecasters said.
Tropical-storm-force winds were extending outward up to 185 miles from the system’s center early Monday.
That center was about 295 miles south-southeast of the mouth of the Rio Grande and some 535 miles south of Cameron, Louisiana. It was crawling north-northwest at 5 mph.
The disturbance had maximum sustained winds of 50 mph, well above the 39 mph needed to be officially dubbed a tropical storm but, explains CBS senior weather and climate producer David Parkinson, its center wasn’t defined clearly enough yet to get that classification.
A Tropical Storm Watch was in effect for Barra del Tordo, Mexico to the mouth of the Rio Grande and from there to Port Mansfield, Texas.
The disturbance follows an unusually calm August and early September in the Atlantic hurricane season, which has had five named storms.
Experts had predicted one of the busiest Atlantic seasons ever and, The Associated Press notes, Colorado State University researchers said last week they still expect an above-normal season overall.
Brian Dakss is a longtime New York-based editor and writer for CBS News, at the Radio network and with CBSNews.com. He has written and edited for NBC News, Dow Jones and numerous radio stations and been a radio anchor and reporter.
Juvenile & The 400 Degreez Band feat. DJ Mannie Fresh Back That Azz Up 25th Anniversary Tour White Oak Music Hall August 16th, 2024
I was a freshman in college in 1999, riding around in a brand new Chevy Cavalier with two Rockford Fosgate 12″ subs in the truck, using rap and Hip-Hop music as the soundtrack to my adventures. It was a great year for the genre, with new albums by Dr. Dre, Jay Z, and Eminem heavy in my rotation. I also had just downloaded some music on Napster by a crew from New Orleans who called themselves Cash Money Records.
There was something supremely hypnotic about rapper Juvenile’s voice and rhyming patterns on “Ha,” the first single from his 400 Degreez album. The beat was also equally transcendent, introducing me to elements of bounce music that this Tejano kid had never heard before. DJ Mannie Fresh was the genius behind those beats, and together the duo would make some of the best Southern rap music ever produced.
And then one day, while watching MTV at my primo’s house, I heard these famous prophetic words:
“Cash Money Records taking over for the ’99 and the 2000!”
DJ Mannie Fresh produced the song “Back That Azz Up,” which was the second single from Juvenile’s 400 Degreez album, widely considered as one of the greatest rap songs ever.
Photo by Marco Torres
The song “Back That Azz Up” was the second single off the 400 Degreez album, and it has been minted by fans as one of the greatest rap songs ever. Even now, 25 years later, the song bangs at the club, at weddings, and in the car. The beat, the lyrics, and the overall feel of the track is infectious, inducing an immediate dance break and putting the world on hold for those 4 minutes and 25 seconds.
The show at White Oak Music Hall on Friday night began with Mannie Fresh behind the DJ booth, warming up the crowd with a mix of Houston rap classics, R&B classics, and bounce anthems. The crowd was singing and swag surfing to all the hits, and were definitely warmed up to receive the headliner. The 400 Degreez band consisted of a drummer, an electric guitar, a bass guitar, and an additional DJ.
Juve sauntered onstage wearing a green track suit, a bucket hat, and a pair of shades. His gold teeth and iced out platinum chain sparkled brightly as he rapped the opening tracks “Ha” and “Set It Off.” His voice and wordplay are so iconic: menacing, guttural, humorous, and witty AF. The aura he creates around his music and stage presence is electric and mysterious.
The aura Juvenile creates around his music and stage presence is electric and mysterious.
Photo by Marco Torres
This concert was initially scheduled to be presented on the lawn, but was later moved inside. And boy did it feel like it…. so many people jam packed the downstairs area of the venue. Luckily, most people were pretty chill and content to be around so many of their fellow Cash Money fans. White girls in Saints jerseys danced to “Get Your Roll On” and “Slow Motion” with their new friends surrounding them. Many of the fans in attendance rapped along to every lyric, even to the b-side tracks like “Shine” and “In My Life.”
Oh course Juve and Mannie looked on with joyful smiles, realizing how their music has endured time and kept relevant throughout the years. Its important to recognize and celebrate greatness, and that’s exactly what we all did, backing that azz up and bouncing to the beats from the ’99 till forever.
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — An agricultural company made the surprise decision Tuesday to cancel a project to build a massive grain terminal in a historic Black town in Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley,” a heavily industrialized stretch of land along the Mississippi River.
The company, Greenfield Louisiana LLC, and its supporters — including Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry — blamed “special interest groups”, “plantation owners” and the Army Corps of Engineers for delaying construction on a grain export facility which would have brought jobs and development to St. John the Baptist Parish.
But community organizers and environmental advocates said the company had brought the problem on itself by attempting to install a 222-acre (90 hectare) facility in an area filled with nationally recognized historic sites and cultural spaces worthy of preservation and investment.
The Army Corps of Engineers said the company had chosen to build in the middle of an area with “environmental justice” and “cultural concerns” which required it to prove it could comply with a range of laws.
What Greenfield promised
Greenfield said that its $800 million grain terminal would have generated more than 1,000 construction jobs, north of 300 permanent jobs, $300 million in state tax revenue and $1.4 million in direct state and local taxes.
The company said its facility was “expected to drive transformative social and economic benefits to the local community” and play a significant role in connecting American farmers with global markets. The facility had been designed with the potential to store 11 million tons of grain.
On its website, Greenfield features testimony from a range of parish residents pledging their support for the facility and the economic growth they believed it would bring.
St. John the Baptist Parish President Jaclyn Hotard described the company’s decision as “a devastating blow to economic development” and lamented the loss of hundreds of jobs at a “state-of-the art, eco-friendly facility.”
What caused Greenfield to pull the plug?
Greenfield’s Van Davis blamed the project’s failure to advance on “the repeated delays and goal-post moving we have faced have finally become untenable, and as a result, our local communities lost.”
The company said the Army Corps of Engineers had recently extended the deadline for the fifth time, pushing a decision on the project’s permits to March 2025.
But Army Corps of Engineers Public Affairs Specialist Matt Roe disputed Greenfield’s framing in an emailed statement.
Roe said the company had to show compliance with multiple laws, including the Clean Water Act and the National Historic Preservation Act, and that “the regulations do not set forth a prescribed timeline for the process.”
Roe said the project’s location “was in a setting with many cultural resources” and that the Corps’ review has been “timely in every respect.”
The Corps has found the project would adversely impact historic sites. Greenfield had said it would take steps to preserve any historical sites or artifacts found during construction.
What was at stake?
Governor Jeff Landry pinned the blame on the Army Corps of Engineers for bringing “additional delays” by listening to “special interest groups and wealthy plantation owners instead of hardworking Louisianans.”
Opponents included the sisters Joy and Jo Banner, whose nonprofit The Descendants Project has bought land in the area — including a former plantation — to protect their town’s heritage. They gained national recognition for their efforts to invest in preserving history of enslaved people and their descendants.
But they are not the only people who thought there should be more focus on finding other avenues to bring jobs and growth to the historic Black town of Wallace and the surrounding parish.
Whitney Plantation Executive Director Ashley Rogers oversees a nearby National Register Historic District which draws 80,000 visitors a year from around the world. The area surrounding the proposed grain terminal site offers two centuries of well-documented history and culture containing “huge potential” for the community to capitalize on, she added.
There is also a National Historic Landmark, Evergreen Plantation, and the Willow Grove cemetery for descendants of the formerly enslaved which would have been adjacent to the 275-foot-high grain terminal.
“There does need to be economic development,” Rogers said. “I just think it can be done in a way that doesn’t permanently destroy the heritage, the culture and the environment and ruin people’s livelihoods and homes, right?”
Fighting in and out of the court
From Greenfield’s representatives to community activists, everyone acknowledged the fight over the project had been exhausting and brutal.
In recent months, flyers attacking local activists opposed to the grain terminal were distributed throughout the community, including images featuring racist tropes. Greenfield representatives denied the company had any connection to the flyers.
There are multiple ongoing lawsuits related to the facility filed by the Descendants Project related to zoning changes and tax exemptions for the company.
Joy Banner, of the Descendant Project, has also sued Parish Council Chairman Michael Wright in federal court for allegedly making threats against her at a council meeting. Wright did not respond to a request for comment.
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This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Joy Banner’s first name on first reference. It is Joy, not Joyce.
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Jack Brook is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
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, all public K-12 classrooms and state-funded universities will be required to display a poster-sized version of the Ten Commandments in “large, easily readable font” next year.
Opponents argue that the law is a violation of separation of church and state and that the display will isolate students, especially those who are not Christian. Proponents say the measure is not solely religious but that it has historical significance. In the language of the law, the Ten Commandments are “foundational documents of our state and national government.”
The lawsuit filed Monday seeks a court declaration that the new law, referred to in the lawsuit as HB 71, violates First Amendment clauses forbidding government establishment of religion and guaranteeing religious liberty. It also seeks an order prohibiting the posting of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms.
“The state’s main interest in passing H.B. 71 was to impose religious beliefs on public-school children, regardless of the harm to students and families,” the lawsuit says. “The law’s primary sponsor and author, Representative Dodie Horton, proclaimed during debate over the bill that it ‘seeks to have a display of God’s law in the classroom for children to see what He says is right and what He says is wrong.’”
The law, the complaint alleges, “sends the harmful and religiously divisive message that students who do not subscribe to the Ten Commandments —or, more precisely, to the specific version of the Ten Commandments that H.B. 71 requires schools to display— do not belong in their own school community and should refrain from expressing any faith practices or beliefs that are not aligned with the state’s religious preferences.”
Defendants include state Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley, members of the state education board and some local school boards.
Gov. Jeff Landry speaks during the start of the special session in the House Chamber on Monday, Jan. 15, 2024, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Michael Johnson / AP
Landry and Louisiana Attorney General Elizabeth Murrill support the new law, and Murrill has said she is looking forward to defending it. She issued a statement saying she couldn’t comment directly on the lawsuit because she had not yet seen it.
“It seems the ACLU only selectively cares about the First Amendment —it doesn’t care when the Biden administration censors speech or arrests pro-life protesters, but apparently it will fight to prevent posters that discuss our own legal history,” Murrill said in the emailed statement.
The Ten Commandments have long been at the center of lawsuits across the nation.
In 1980, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a similar Kentucky law violated the establishment clause of the U.S. Constitution, which says Congress can “make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” The high court found that the law had no secular purpose but rather served a plainly religious purpose.
In a more recent ruling, the Supreme Court held in 2005 that such displays in a pair of Kentucky courthouses violated the Constitution. At the same time, the court upheld a Ten Commandments marker on the grounds of the Texas state Capitol in Austin. Those were 5-4 decisions, but the court’s makeup has changed, with a 6-3 conservative majority now.
Other states, including Texas, Oklahoma and Utah, have attempted to pass requirements that the schools display the Ten Commandments. However, with threats of legal battles, none has the mandate in place except for Louisiana.
The posters in Louisiana, which will be paired with a four-paragraph “context statement” describing how the Ten Commandments “were a prominent part of public education for almost three centuries,” must be in place in classrooms by the start of 2025. Under the law, state funds will not be used to implement the mandate. The posters would be paid for through donations.
The case was allotted to U.S. District Judge John deGravelles, nominated to the federal bench by former President Barack Obama.
Video of Thursday’s ceremony shows what appears to be a middle school student fainting as the governor signs the bill into law.
About 19 seconds into the video below, you can see her fall and get help from people near her.
Meanwhile, the Republican governor appears unaware of what is happening behind him.
HuffPost reached out to the governor’s office to find out the status of the girl and her connection with the event, but no one immediately responded.
However, the clip went viral, and people had thoughts. Lots of thoughts, many of which assumed Landry ignored the girl (though it’s unclear he was aware of what was going on).
The Biden administration’s new Title IX rule expanding protections for LGBTQ+ students has been temporarily blocked in four states after a federal judge in Louisiana found that it overstepped the Education Department’s authority.
In a preliminary injunction granted Thursday, U.S. District Judge Terry A. Doughty called the new rule an “abuse of power” and a “threat to democracy.” His order blocks the rule in Louisiana, which filed a challenge to the rule in April, and in Mississippi, Montana and Idaho, which joined the suit.
The Education Department did not immediately respond to the order.
The Louisiana case is among at least seven backed by more than 20 Republican-led states fighting Biden’s rule. The rule, set to take hold in August, expands Title IX civil rights protections to LGBTQ+ students, expands the definition of sexual harassment at schools and colleges, and adds safeguards for victims.
Doughty, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump, is the first judge to block the rule. It deals a major blow to the new protections, which were praised by civil rights advocates but drew backlash from opponents who say they undermine the spirit of Title IX, a 1972 law barring sex discrimination in education.
Louisiana is among several Republican states with laws requiring people to use bathrooms and locker rooms based on their sex assigned at birth, restricting transgender students from using facilities that align with their gender identity. President Biden’s rule clashes with those laws and claimed to supersede them.
The Louisiana lawsuit argued that the new rule would force schools across the four states to pay millions of dollars to update their facilities. In his decision, the judge called it an “invasion of state sovereignty” and concluded that the states were likely to succeed on the merits of the case.
His order says the rule likely violates free speech laws by requiring schools to use pronouns requested by students. It also questions whether the Biden administration has legal authority to expand Title IX to LGBTQ+ students.
“The Court finds that the term ‘sex discrimination’ only included discrimination against biological males and females at the time of enactment,” Doughty wrote in his order.
The judge expressed concern that the rule could require schools to allow transgender women and girls to compete on female sports teams. Several Republican states have laws forbidding transgender girls from competing on girls teams.
The Biden administration has proposed a separate rule that would forbid such blanket bans, but it said the newly finalized rule does not apply to athletics. Still, Doughty said it could be interpreted to apply to sports.
“The Final Rule applies to sex discrimination in any educational ‘program’ or ‘activity’ receiving Federal financial assistance,” he wrote. “The terms ‘program’ or ‘activity’ are not defined but could feasibly include sports teams for recipient schools.”
Judges in at least six other cases are weighing whether to put a similar hold on Biden’s rule. The Defense of Freedom Institute, a right-leaning nonprofit that backed the Louisiana lawsuit, applauded Doughty’s order.
“We are confident that other courts and states will soon follow,” said Bob Eitel, president of the nonprofit and a Trump administration education official.
Biden issued the new rule after dismantling another one created by Trump’s education secretary, Betsy DeVos. That rule narrowed the definition of sexual harassment and added protections for students accused of sexual misconduct.
On social media Thursday, DeVos called the Louisiana decision a victory, saying Biden’s “anti-woman radical rewrite of Title IX is not just crazy but it’s also illegal.”
At Baker Heights Elementary, everything seems to be coming apart, and it’s Timothy Scott’s job to try to patch whatever’s broken — whether it be falling ceiling tiles or a water fountain falling off the wall.
“It could be fixed, it could be repaired, but we’re pulling funding from the classroom,” Scott said.
Baker, Louisiana, just outside Baton Rouge, is home to roughly 12,000 people. Money is tight, and the population and tax base are shrinking. The infrastructure, including five school buildings that were all built in the 1950s, is crumbling.
Across the U.S., the average public school building is now nearly half a century old, and communities like Baker are facing a lot of repairs. Although Congress allocated more than $1 trillion to rebuild America’s infrastructure in 2021, many schools across the country are growing desperate to fund the much-needed repairs.
To date, the infrastructure law has funded more than 40,000 projects across the country. But in many cases, the money reaches communities like Baker too slowly.
Baker Superintendent J.T. Stroder says declining enrollment means “it’s tough to do anything.” The problems with infrastructure are not limited to the city’s schools, he says.
“You can drive around the community and you’ll see how those kind of match,” Stroder said.
“The way a student feels about their surroundings and their atmosphere affects how they perform academically,” he added.
Overall, America’s infrastructure — from roads to bridges to drinking water — has a grade of C-minus, according to the last “report card” from the American Society of Civil Engineers. The investment needed just to bring American schools up to par is $870 billion, according to the 21st Century School Fund.
Baker Mayor Darnell Waites knows Baker’s challenges firsthand.
“Everything that I do is infrastructure,” Waites said. But despite knowing what the problems are, “it takes money” to fix them.
“There’s a lot of other things that’s going on at the same time,” Waites said. “You want infrastructure, but you want to be safe… so 50% of my budget is public safety and everything else goes toward infrastructure.”
Much of that funding comes from state and federal funding, Waites said.
Louisiana Republican Senator Bill Cassidy was instrumental in negotiating the 2021 infrastructure law.
“During the COVID epidemic, billions were sent to state and local educational authorities,” Cassidy said. “But oftentimes when the federal government puts up dollars, the state and local pull back and the net sum remains constant.”
Many of these infrastructure issues existed long before the pandemic broke out.
In 2016, a flood closed the local high school. Ever since, students have had classes in the middle school building.
“I would say, I do feel forgotten about,” one student said. “Kind of ashamed to say what school you go to.”
The water-damaged high school will reopen this fall — 8 years after the flood.
“We don’t have that experience, like a bigger environment for us to grow in and flourish in, but I’m hopeful for the future,” another student said.
In many American communities, that’s something else that has been slow to rebuild: hope.
Mark Strassmann is CBS News’ senior national correspondent based in Atlanta. He covers a wide range of stories, including space exploration. Strassmann is also the senior national correspondent for “Face the Nation.”
Whew, chile! Roomies, you might just be living in one of America’s dirtiest cities! A recent study left the internet in shambles after it revealed a list of the top 20 dirtiest cities in the United States.
Top 20 Dirtiest Cities In America
According to The Hill, LawnStarter, a lawn care provider, assessed over 150 major United States cities. Their study centered on pollution, living conditions, infrastructure, and resident satisfaction.
Social media was shook after Houston, Texas, was crowned the dirtiest city to live in. The Hill reports that Houston ranked highest due to its major cockroach problem, high levels of pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions from large industrial plants.
Despite these assertions, some Houstonians express greater satisfaction with their city’s cleanliness compared to residents in 33 other major cities.
Completing the top five list was Newark, New Jersey, securing the second position. It dropped from its number one position as the dirtiest city.
The list proceeded with San Bernardino at number three, followed by Detroit, Michigan at number four, and Jersey City, New Jersey at number five.
Multiple cities in California, including Bakersfield, Fresno, Los Angeles and San Bernardino, were also identified among the dirtiest. San Bernardino, for the second consecutive year, had the highest number of dissatisfied residents regarding cleanliness. Furthermore, the study underscored the water challenges faced by the Southwest, which has intensified by drought and climate change. However, Las Vegas emerged as the most polluted region, securing the 19th position.
See the full list below:
Houston, Texas
Newark, New Jersey
San Bernardino, California
Detroit, Michigan
Jersey City, New Jersey
Bakersfield, California
San Antonio, Texas
Fresno, California
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Yonkers, New York
Shreveport, Louisiana
New York, New York
Birmingham, Alabama
Ontario, California
Los Angeles, California
Modesto, California
Palmdale, California
Hollywood, Florida
Las Vegas, Nevada
Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Social Media Reacts To The List
Of course, the Roomie’s couldn’t resist weighing in and offering their reactions to the news in The Shade Room comment section. Numerous social media users were shocked to learn about the study’s discovery.
Instagram user @318roo wrote “I refuse to believe any city is dirtier than New York gotta be cap.”
Instagram user @richidollarz wrote, “Houston beating NY is WILDDDD.”
Another Instagram user @likewhat_youcee wrote, “Philly and Chicago not being on here leaves me a little skeptical of the list.”
While Instagram user @maintisha wrote, “Oh I get it!!! Y’all must be ranking the men!!!”
Then Instagram usr wrote @itsrachelsimone wrote, “Didn’t Harlem have rats the side of a croc shoe.”
Instagram user @getemhuskey wrote, “Well since Houston so dirty STOP COMING DOWN HERE AND MOVING AFTER ONE SUNDAY FUNDAY EXPERIENCE!! We FULL B****!!”
Finally Instagram user @athereshego921 wrote, “Sir I’m sitting on a nYC. subway platform now… who I gotta submit my evidence to? Because how? NY has to be the dirtiest city ever and I live here.”
NEW ORLEANS — A Louisiana student has beaten the odds and graduated high school at the top of his class while living in a homeless shelter.
Elijah Hogan, 19, started his high school career dealing with remote classes at the height of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. He recently wrapped up his senior year at Walter L. Cohen High School while living in Covenant House, a homeless shelter serving youth under 22 in New Orleans.
“It’s been tough and rough, had a few trips and falls down, [but] I’m alright,” Hogan told “Good Morning America” of his final year in high school.
Despite the challenges Hogan has had to face, he has found a strong community at Walter L. Cohen High School and at Covenant House, which he credits for helping him succeed.
Without your education, you will not be able to get through the hardships and meet the people that helped you along the way
Elijah Hogan, high school valedictorian
“I have people that were there to help me get through it. And without them I wouldn’t have been where I’m at now as a valedictorian,” Hogan said of fellow students, teachers and staff, whom he said he leaned on for support.
With a final GPA of 3.93, Hogan is one of two valedictorians in the class of 2024 at Cohen, a charter high school in New Orleans’ Uptown neighborhood.
Hogan delivered a valedictorian address at the Walter L. Cohen High School graduation ceremony on May 24, a speech he described as a “thank-you note” to the community he said has given him so much.
“The speech in itself was more of a thank-you letter to the school, to the staff, to the students and to their parents for helping us to get past our school years and get us where we are now graduating, going off in the world,” Hogan explained.
It’s a departure from four years ago, as Hogan told “GMA,” when he started high school full of nervousness.
“As time went on, I started to build up relationships, had to meet some wonderful people, got to know a lot of people, as well as forming relationships and trust with them,” he said.
Among the many people who have seen and helped Hogan succeed are Jana DeCoster, director of student activities at Cohen High School, and Jarkayla Cobb, Hogan’s Rites of Passage case worker at Covenant House.
“All of our students experience different levels of trauma, different experiences, and I think Elijah recognizes, like, yes, he had adults in his corner, but all of our students who made it to graduation also had adults in their corner,” DeCoster said. “And it is rare that they get thanked at graduation on such a large stage … the fact that he is so gracious to think of, again, not just himself, he’s thinking of all of his classmates, that’s just really special.”
Cobb said she has also noticed a significant change in Hogan since she first met him in 2023.
“Being in a homeless shelter is traumatic. Whatever you went through to get you here is traumatic,” Cobb said.
But with Hogan, Cobb explained that he has come a long way.
“He was very shy. He had very little words at first, so it’s just awesome to see how much he’s developed and become so well-spoken over the last seven or eight months that I’ve been a part of his life and just been able to push and encourage him to go after everything that the world has to offer,” Cobb said.
Now, the 19-year-old, a Marvel and Stan Lee fan who loves to read nonfiction and make art, said he is ready to take on a new adventure as he gets ready for college in the fall at Xavier University of Louisiana, where he hopes to major in graphic design.
For other students looking to follow in his footsteps, Hogan recommended they take the time to focus on schoolwork.
“There is a time and place where you can have fun, but try to keep yourself organized on some of your education as well, because without your education, you will not be able to get through the hardships and meet the people that helped you along the way,” Hogan said.
Strong storms with damaging winds and baseball-sized hail pummeled Texas on Tuesday, leaving more than one million businesses and homes without power as much of the U.S. recovered from severe weather, including tornadoes, that killed at least 24 people in seven states during the Memorial Day holiday weekend.
Voters in the state’s runoff elections found some polling places without power. Roughly 100 voting sites in Dallas County were knocked offline. Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins declared a disaster area and noted that some nursing homes were using generators. “This ultimately will be a multi-day power outage situation,” Jenkins said Tuesday.
More rough weather and heavy rains were forecast for the Dallas area Tuesday night. Heavy thunderstorms also were plowing toward Houston, where officials warned that winds as strong as 70 mph could cause damage less than two weeks after hurricane-force winds knocked out power to more than 800,000 homes and businesses.
Drivers navigate high water on Yale Street in the Heights after a strong storm blew in on May 28, 2024, in Houston, Texas.
Karen Warren/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images
In the Midwest, an unusual weather phenomenon called a “gustnado” that looks like a small tornado brought some dramatic moments to a western Michigan lake over the weekend.
Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Deanne Criswell will travel to Arkansas on Wednesday as the Biden administration continues assessing the damage from the weekend tornadoes.
Seven people, including two young children, were killed in Cooke County, Texas, from a tornado that tore through a mobile home park Saturday, officials said, and seven deaths were reported across Arkansas.
Two people died in Mayes County, Oklahoma, east of Tulsa, authorities said. The injured included guests at an outdoor wedding. A Missouri man died Sunday in Sikeston after a tree limb fell onto his tent as he was camping.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said five people had died in his state during storms that struck close to where a devastating swarm of twisters killed 81 people in December 2021. One family lost their home for a second time on the same lot where a twister leveled their house less than three years ago.
An 18-year-old woman was killed in North Carolina’s Clay County after a large tree landed on her trailer. Authorities also confirmed one death in Nelson County, Virginia.
In addition to the Memorial Day weekend death toll, in Magnolia, Texas, about 40 miles north of Houston, one person died Tuesday when a house under construction collapsed during a storm, the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office reported.
Severe weather and tornadoes moved through Kentucky on Sunday afternoon and Sunday night, May 26, 2024.
Ryan Hermens/Lexington Herald-Leader/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
Roughly 150,000 homes and businesses lacked electricity midday Tuesday in Louisiana, Kentucky, Arkansas, West Virginia and Missouri.
It has been a grim month of tornadoes and severe weather in the nation’s midsection.
Tornadoes in Iowa last week left at least five people dead and dozens injured. Storms killed eight people in Houston earlier this month. April had the second-highest number of tornadoes on record in the country. The storms come as climate change contributes in general to the severity of storms around the world.
Late May is the peak of tornado season, but the recent storms have been exceptionally violent, producing very strong tornadoes, said Victor Gensini, a meteorology professor at Northern Illinois University.
“Over the weekend, we’ve had a lot of hot and humid air, a lot of gasoline, a lot of fuel for these storms. And we’ve had a really strong jet stream as well. That jet stream has been aiding in providing the wind shear necessary for these types of tornadoes,” Gensini said.
The exterior of the Veterans of Foreign Wars facility suffered severe damage following a tornado on May 23, 2024, in Temple, Texas.
BRANDON BELL / Getty Images
Harold Brooks, a senior scientist at the National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, Oklahoma, said a persistent pattern of warm, moist air is to blame for the string of tornadoes over the past two months.
That air is at the northern edge of a heat dome bringing temperatures typically seen at the height of summer to late May.
The heat index — a combination of air temperature and humidity to indicate how the heat feels to the human body — reached triple digits in parts of south Texas and was expected to stay there for several days.
NEW ORLEANS — First-of-its-kind legislation that classifies two abortion-inducing drugs as controlled and dangerous substances was signed into law Friday by Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry.
The Republican governor announced his signing of the bill in Baton Rouge a day after it gained final legislative passage in the state Senate.
Opponents of the measure included many physicians who said the drugs have other critical reproductive health care uses, and that changing the classification could make it harder to prescribe the drugs.
Supporters of the bill, which affects the drugs mifepristone and misoprostol, said it would protect expectant mothers from coerced abortions, though they cited only one example of that happening, in the state of Texas.
A bill passed by Louisiana lawmakers Thursday could see the state become the first in the country to classify two abortion-inducing drugs as controlled and dangerous substances—a move doctors and reproductive rights advocates say could have far-reaching implications for health care access in the state.
The bill, SB 276, passed the state Senate with a vote of 29 to 7, after having passed in the House with a vote of 66 to 30 on Tuesday. It will next go to Republican Gov. Jeff Landry, who is expected to sign it into law. Supporters of the bill say it will protect pregnant people from coerced abortions, while opponents argue that the two drugs, mifepristone and misoprostol, have many other uses aside from abortion, and that reclassifying them as controlled substances would make it more difficult for patients to access the drug when needed.
Here’s what the bill would do, and the controversy surrounding it.
What is SB 276?
The bill, sponsored by Republican Sen. Thomas Pressly, initially only focused on criminalizing intentionally using medications to cause or attempt to cause an abortion without the pregnant person’s knowledge or consent. Pressly said he sponsored the bill after his sister learned that her husband had given her abortion-inducing drugs without her knowledge or consent.
Several Louisiana doctors and reproductive rights advocates say they were concerned not by the initial bill, but by its amendment, which was added late in the legislative process. The amendment labels mifepristone and misoprostol as Schedule IV drugs under Louisiana’s Uniform Controlled Dangerous Substances Law. Schedule IV drugs are considered to have potential for abuse or dependence, and include Valium and Xanax.
Under the bill, if a person knowingly possesses these drugs without a valid prescription, they could face fines or jail time.
Is abortion banned in Louisiana?
Yes. Louisiana has a near-total abortion ban in place with limited exceptions, such as if the fetus has a fatal abnormality or if continuing the pregnancy could risk death.
But both mifepristone and misoprostol are allowed in Louisiana for non-abortion related purposes, such as stopping uterine hemorrhaging caused by complications from childbirth, inducing labor, and preparing the uterus for procedures like IUD insertions and biopsies. Because of this, opponents of SB 276 argue that the bill could reduce access to health care.
The Food and Drug Administration does not view mifepristone and misoprostol as having a significant risk of abuse or dependence. Years of research has found that both medications are safe.
Dr. Jennifer Avegno, an emergency medicine physician and director of the New Orleans Health Department, tells TIME that the amendment to the bill could create a “false narrative” that the drugs are dangerous. Avegno, who co-wrote a letter to lawmakers signed by more than 200 Louisiana doctors objecting to the bill’s amendment, says numerous doctors agree that the drugs don’t belong on the Schedule IV list because they lack the potential for addiction.
“You have to have a clear demonstration that you have a high risk for abuse, dependence, addiction, or you’re a public health hazard,” Avegno says about Schedule IV drugs. “None of the hundreds of physicians that we’ve worked with on this have ever experienced the drugs being used in an addictive manner or abuse.”
Why are many doctors against the amendment to the bill?
Doctors say that the bill could block access to the drugs for non-abortion purposes. Classifying the drugs as controlled substances would require doctors to have a special license to prescribe them, which some may not have.
“There are just so many different regulations that you’d have to go through,” says Dr. Bhavik Kumar, a family doctor and medical director at Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, which serves Louisiana and southeast Texas.
This could cause delays in patients receiving access to these medications, sometimes in serious or life-threatening situations
“Any delay in getting that medication is the difference, quite frankly, between life or death,” Avegno says. “So it’s not the abstract that we’re talking about and it’s not sort of these unusual, rare cases. These drugs are used all day, every day.”
Patients also may become reluctant to take the drugs even when necessary because they may not understand that they’re safe to use, and pharmacists may be reluctant to fill these prescriptions, Avegno adds.
“What we’re already seeing is that women who are being prescribed misoprostol for miscarriage are even now being told by their pharmacy, ‘I can’t fill that, that’s the abortion drug’ because there persists so much fear out there,” Avegno says. “So if it’s happening now, when it’s not labeled as a controlled, dangerous substance, how often is that going to happen when it is?”
Louisiana has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the country, and doctors worry that this amendment could exacerbate the situation.
What do people who support the bill say?
Proponents of the bill argue that SB 276 would not prohibit doctors from prescribing these medications, but would instead prevent people from misusing them.
“What we’re trying to do here is add an additional opportunity to keep bad actors from getting these medications,” Pressly said during the Senate meeting Thursday. The senator called the amendment “a proactive step” to prevent what happened to his sister from happening to others.
Louisiana Right to Life, an anti-abortion group that worked with Pressly on the bill, has argued that state law does not say that drugs need to be addictive in order to be classified as controlled substances. The group’s communications director, Sarah Zagorski, says that she does not think the bill would impede access to the drugs for non-abortion needs.
“The legislation itself says that for legitimate health reasons that this medication is completely legal,” she says. “Physicians prescribe controlled substances every single day, they know the protocols for that; this is no different than that.”
The bill is now waiting to be signed into law by Gov. Landry. If he does, the law would take effect Oct. 1.
Doctors and reproductive rights advocates say that they’re concerned that SB 276 could inspire similar bills in other states. And many worried that there could be more unforeseen consequences.
“There’s so many unknowns with this because this is just unprecedented,” says Dr. Nicole Freehill, an ob-gyn in Louisiana.
The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that Louisiana can use a newly-drawn House map that includes a second district with a majority of Black voters. The decision comes after a lower court recently called the map unconstitutional racial gerrymandering. CBS News congressional correspondent Nikole Killion has more.
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Jeremiah’s Italian Ice is bringing the summer fun with their latest announcement, teaming up with NERDS to deliver three delicious limited-time Flavorites: Cotton Candy Crunch, The Blue Razz, and Citrus Crunch. The new flavors available through June 30th or while supplies last.
Along with the limited release comes the news that the brand is permanently adding Rainbow NERDS to their Layer-Ins menu.
“We couldn’t be more excited to collaborate with Nerds to bring these sweet treats to life,” said Erin Buono, director of research and development for Jeremiah’s Italian Ice. “At Jeremiah’s Italian Ice, we’re always looking to find exciting new flavor experiences for our guests, and Nerds really hit the mark when it comes to both flavor and texture – making it a perfect choice for our Layer-Ins, which provide delicious variety in each bite.”
The three new NERDS® Flavorites are layered with crunchy, vibrant Rainbow Nerds that pack big flavor throughout each Gelati, alongside Jeremiah’s signature smooth Soft Ice Cream and fruity Italian Ice:
“Nerds is the perfect partner for Jeremiah’s Italian Ice because we stand for the same values: spreading joy and fun with every bite,” said Jeremy Litwack, founder and chairman of the board for Jeremiah’s Italian Ice. “Our Candy Shoppe Flavorites embody the essence of playfulness and bold flavor that we strive for each of our guests to experience in our stores. They’re the perfect kick-off to summer, and the perfect treats to beat the summer heat.”
This limited-time offering underscores the company’s commitment to innovation in its frozen treats, marrying a variety of textures and flavors to provide the most flavorful experience to its guests. Alongside exciting bites of flavor with Layer-Ins and flavors to satisfy every palette, Jeremiah’s Italian Ice has also developed its signature smooth Soft Ice Cream and Italian Ice to deliver the perfect texture in every treat.
Jeremiah’s Italian Ice is headquartered in Orlando, with locations throughout Florida, Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Louisiana, Colorado, Nevada, Alabama, Tennessee and Texas.
