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  • Lawmakers answer questions amid looming constitutional convention

    BATON ROUGE - As a state constitutional convention approaches, lawmakers are broadly planning for what ought to stay in the state's guiding document. Once the measure, HB 800, from Rep. Beau Beaullieu, R-New Iberia passes, state leaders will have just 14 days to revise the 50-year-old document.The two-week-long convention could cost the state more than $62,000. The amount includes a daily $179 payment to Landry's 27 appointees. Among the delegates is Baton Rouge's Mayor-President Sharon Weston...

  • Head of PAR Louisiana warns of changes to Ethics Board, discusses constitutional convention

    BATON ROUGE — The head of the Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana says it might be appropriate for the state to draft a new constitution.Speaking at the Baton Rouge Press Club on Monday, Steven Procopio said the current constitution, adopted 50 years ago, gets deep into the weeds when it should just set guidelines for how the state should operate."We're doing it wrong," Procopio said. "A constitution should be a fundamental document that guides the policy-making process. It says...

  • House rejects proposed shelter system changes

    House Democrats defeated a Republican bid to restrict migrants' access to the state's overflowing emergency family shelter system, a day after the Legislature shipped a supplemental budget to Gov. Maura Healey that would impose a new nine-month limit on shelter stays.