News from the South - Louisiana News Feed

Louisiana political campaigns might get to withhold more donation, spending info

Published

2 weeks ago

June 4, 2025

lailluminator.com – Julie O’Donoghue – 2025-06-04 06:31:00

by Julie O’Donoghue, Louisiana Illuminator
June 4, 2025

Louisiana lawmakers might diminish information available to the public about political donations and election spending through a sprawling rewrite of the state’s campaign finance law.

Gov. Jeff Landry is pushing House Bill 693, sponsored by House Republican Caucus Chairman Mark Wright, R-Covington. It carves out more circumstances under which political contributions and expenditures don’t have to be disclosed on a public campaign finance report.

The 101-page proposal is difficult to understand for people who don’t deal with campaign finance regulations frequently. Even staff attorneys for the Louisiana Board of Ethics, which enforces the campaign finance laws, admit the changes are confusing.

“To be honest with you, it’s going to take quite a grace period to figure all this out,” Ethics Administrator David Bordelon said when presenting the bill to the state ethics board last month.

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Private attorneys Stephen Gelé and Charles Spies helped write the bill. They have represented Landry in multiple disputes he has had with the ethics board, including over campaign finance laws and enforcement.

Gelé has said the proposal respects constitutional rights, including freedom of speech, while still providing transparency and “preventing the appearance of corruption.”

The state’s preeminent government watchdog group disagrees. The Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana (PAR) has come out against the legislation, saying the bill would benefit politicians while offering little for the general public.

“There is a very large bill, and I don’t quite understand the problem it is trying to solve,” PAR President Steven Procopio said at a legislative hearing last month.

The Louisiana House voted to approve the legislation on a 77-16 vote last month. The Senate will start taking up the bill Wednesday, and both chambers need to pass it by the end of the legislative session on June 12.

In more than 20 places in the law, the bill increases the minimum dollar threshold at which a donation or expense has to be included on a public campaign finance report.

For example, national political committees that raise most of their money outside Louisiana are required to publicly disclose their spending on a Louisiana election once it reaches $20,000. The proposed bill would hike that disclosure threshold to $50,000.

The current law also requires any campaign contributions or expenditures over $200 given within the 20 days before the election to be reported on a public campaign finance report. The proposed law would hike that disclosure threshold to $5,000.

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Over a dozen similar changes are also part of the legislation.

Individuals who are not political candidates and groups that are not explicitly political committees could also spend money on an election without disclosing contributions they accepted for the politicking.

Those who are not a candidate or a designated political committee would only be required to disclose election spending over $1,000 in a political cycle and if it involved:

federally-regulated broadcast media;
500 pieces of mail;
a phone bank of 500 calls within a 30-day period; or
digital or print advertising with a candidate’s image that’s distributed in the area the candidate would represent within 30 days of their primary and 60 days of their general election

These changes would apply to large, statewide elections and smaller ones such as those for police juries, town councils and school boards.

Money spent to communicate with people in a “membership organization” – such as a union, industry association or an athletic club – as well as employees and stockholders of a business also would not have to be reported as a political expense. This could include communication sent to thousands of people at once.

In some cases, current campaign finance law obliges people to report this type of spending that would be shielded under the Wright bill. But supporters of the legislation said these exceptions were mainly carved out with so-called social welfare organizations, which already aren’t required to disclose their donors, in mind.

The organizations, which critics call “dark money” political groups, are registered with the IRS as 501(c)(4) nonprofits for tax purposes and can keep their contributors private under federal regulations. It’s unclear to what extent the groups have to disclose their spending on Louisiana elections under current state campaign finance laws.

Landry has set up at least one of these “dark money” groups, Protect Louisiana Values, to advance his political agenda. It also notably put up the money for Landry to rent a live tiger to attend an LSU football game last year.

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Former Gov. John Bel Edwards also established two of his own “dark money” groups during his eight years in office: Rebuild Louisiana and A Stronger Louisiana.

While limiting disclosure on political spending, Wright’s legislation does open up allowable uses of politician’s campaign funds to a much wider group of expenses, including their home mortgages, country club fees and gym memberships.

The legislation is also one of a few bills Landry is pushing to soften ethics laws and regulations this session. Lawmakers in favor of them said they are reacting to overzealous enforcement by the ethics board.

In 2007, former Gov. Bobby Jindal and legislators passed dozens of restrictions and public disclosure requirements for elected officials and public employees as part of Jindal’s effort to reach a “gold standard” of ethics for Louisiana that would be a model around the country.

Lawmakers are now saying that effort was overreach that needs to be corrected.

“I haven’t come across an elected official who has enjoyed working through this process and hasn’t questioned what they did back in the Jindal era,” Wright said of ethics and campaign finance regulations.

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Louisiana Illuminator is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Louisiana Illuminator maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Greg LaRose for questions: info@lailluminator.com.

The post Louisiana political campaigns might get to withhold more donation, spending info appeared first on lailluminator.com

Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Center-Left

This article provides a detailed critique of a campaign finance bill supported by Republican Governor Jeff Landry and other GOP leaders, highlighting concerns about reduced transparency and increased opportunities for political spending without public disclosure. The coverage tends to emphasize the potential negative consequences of the bill for public accountability, presenting viewpoints from ethics watchdogs and critics who argue the legislation benefits politicians and “dark money” groups. While it reports statements from bill supporters, the overall framing leans toward skepticism of the Republican-led effort, consistent with a center-left perspective that prioritizes transparency and limiting the influence of money in politics.

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News from the South - Louisiana News Feed

‘Sanctuary city’ governors object to Trump deployment of troops into Los Angeles

Published

1 day ago

June 14, 2025

Staff Editor

lailluminator.com – Ariana Figueroa – 2025-06-14 05:00:00

by Ariana Figueroa, Louisiana Illuminator
June 14, 2025

WASHINGTON — Three Democratic governors from states that leave immigration enforcement to the federal government said Thursday they oppose President Donald Trump’s decision to send more than 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines into Los Angeles without the consent of California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

The lengthy and tense U.S. House hearing where the trio appeared — highlighted by a shouting match among members and accusations of Nazi tactics — came as the nation’s capital prepared for a major military parade and Trump’s birthday Saturday, along with thousands of “No Kings” protests across the country.

In Los Angeles, a U.S. senator was tackled and removed from an immigration press conference by federal law enforcement agents accompanying Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

The governors, whose states have submitted an amicus brief to a lawsuit by Newsom challenging Trump, said the decisions to bring in the military should be made by local officials.

“It’s wrong to deploy the National Guard and active-duty Marines into an American city over the objection of local law enforcement, just to inflame a situation and create a crisis, just as it’s wrong to tear children away from their homes and their mothers and fathers, who have spent decades living and working in our communities, raising their families,” Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker of Illinois told members of the House Oversight and Government Reform committee.

The hearing with Govs. Pritzker, Tim Walz of Minnesota and Kathy Hochul of New York marked the second time House Republicans have called in leaders in blue states that have policies of non-cooperation with federal immigration officials in enforcement efforts. Those policies do not bar immigration enforcement from occurring.

Republicans brought in the mayors of Boston, Chicago and Denver in March.

The eight-hour hearing came after multi-day protests in Los Angeles sparked when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers began widespread immigration raids at Home Depots in their communities in an effort to carry out the president’s mass deportation efforts.

The governors stressed that the president’s decision to send in the National Guard set a dangerous precedent and posed a threat to democracy.

Republicans on the committee defended the president’s actions and instead accused the governors of violating federal law because of their state policies, dubbed as “sanctuary cities.” Immigration policy is handled by the federal government and states and localities are not required to coordinate with officials.

Shouting match over Noem

More than four hours into the hearing, video circulated of California Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla being forcibly removed and handcuffed by Secret Service agents while trying to ask a question of Noem during a press conference in LA.

Democrats on the panel, such as Arizona Democratic Rep. Yassamin Ansari, slammed the video and raised concerns that a “sitting senator was shoved to the ground.”

It led to a shouting match, with Florida Democratic Rep. Maxwell Alejandro Frost asking the chair of the panel, James Comer of Kentucky, if the committee would subpoena Noem.

Comer said Frost was out of order and tried to move on.

Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who was next in line for questioning, heckled Frost and said that Democrats “can’t follow the rules.” Comer eventually told Frost to “shut up.”

Pritzker said that he could not “believe the disrespect that was shown to a United States senator” who was trying to ask Noem a question.

“That seems completely irrational,” Pritzker said.

Democrats on the panel such as Illinois Rep. Delia Ramirez and Dan Goldman of New York called for Noem to appear before the committee.

“Anyone with two eyes that can see, can see that was authoritarian, lawless behavior that no person in America, much less a senator conducting congressional oversight, should receive,” Goldman said.

‘People are living in fear’

The Democratic governors defended their immigration policies and criticized the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration crackdown, pointing to ICE officers wearing face coverings to arrest immigrants.

“People are living in fear in the shadows,” Hochul said. “People can’t go to school, they can’t worship, they can’t go get health care. They can’t go to their senior center. What is happening has been traumatic.”

Several Republicans including Reps. Comer, Tom Emmer of Minnesota and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, took issue with comments by Walz at a commencement speech in May, in which he accused the president of turning ICE agents into a modern-day Gestapo, the official secret police of Nazi Germany.

Republican Rep. Eric Burlison of Missouri said that Walz should apologize.

Walz said that as a former history teacher, he was making an observation about ICE tactics — such as wearing a face covering to arrest people — that were similar to those used by secret police.

The top Democrat on the panel, Stephen Lynch of Massachusetts, defended Walz’s statement, and said that ICE is operating like a modern-day Gestapo.

Lynch pointed to the video of the international Tufts University student who was approached by masked men on the street and taken into a van for writing an op-ed in defense of Palestinian human rights.

“ICE agents wearing masks and hoodies detained Rümeysa Öztürk and those of you who watched that, that abduction, when you compare the old films of the Gestapo grabbing people off the streets of Poland, and you compare them to those nondescript thugs who grabbed that student, that graduate student, it does look like a Gestapo operation,” Lynch said.

The post ‘Sanctuary city’ governors object to Trump deployment of troops into Los Angeles appeared first on lailluminator.com

Political Bias Rating: Center-Left

This content predominantly presents the perspective of Democratic governors and lawmakers who criticize the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement policies and military deployment in Los Angeles. It highlights opposition to aggressive immigration raids and emphasizes the protection of immigrant communities, framing the federal government’s actions as authoritarian. While it includes Republican responses and viewpoints, the tone and detail given to Democratic criticisms suggest a center-left bias, focusing on human rights and local authority against federal overreach.

News from the South - Louisiana News Feed

Israel strikes Iran's nuclear sites and kills its top generals. Iran retaliates with missile barrage

Published

2 days ago

June 13, 2025

Staff Editor

wgno.com – JON GAMBRELL, JOSEF FEDERMAN and JULIA FRANKEL, Associated Press – 2025-06-13 16:14:00

SUMMARY: Israel launched a major airstrike on Iran’s nuclear and military sites, killing top generals and scientists, aiming to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. Iran retaliated with dozens of ballistic missiles targeting Israel’s major cities, causing casualties and damage. The conflict escalated regional tensions, with global calls for de-escalation. Israel used smuggled drones and precision strikes to hit key facilities, notably Iran’s Natanz nuclear site. Iran’s Supreme Leader Khamenei vowed revenge. The U.S. supported Israeli defense efforts while warning against targeting American interests. The operation reflects longstanding Israeli concerns over Iran’s nuclear ambitions amid a fragile Middle Eastern security landscape.

Read the full article

The post Israel strikes Iran's nuclear sites and kills its top generals. Iran retaliates with missile barrage appeared first on wgno.com

News from the South - Louisiana News Feed

Midday Ark-La-Miss News Update: June 13, 2025

Published

2 days ago

June 13, 2025

Staff Editor

www.youtube.com – KTVE – 2025-06-13 15:54:00

SUMMARY: Winners of the 2025 St. Jude Dream Home Giveaway were announced, with prizes including a \$2,500 Visa card, Mazda 3 sedan, standby generator, zero-turn mower, and the dream home itself. Louisiana’s new Act 44 aims to boost its film industry with tax incentives for productions and in-state hiring. A new studio at ULM’s Clark M. Williams Innovation Campus will foster collaboration between students and professionals. In El Dorado, police addressed concerns about a fake officer in a retired black SUV; no active impersonators are confirmed. NBC also urged support for a food drive benefitting veterans, ending next week.