Louisiana
Slow down the con-con train • Louisiana Illuminator
This weekend marks 50 years since Louisiana voters ratified the 1974 state constitution. If Gov. Jeff Landry and his financial backers have their way, it might also be the last time we can celebrate the anniversary of our state’s foundational charter.
With three whole months of governing under his belt, Landry is demanding that state legislators, along with 27 of his hand-picked appointees, convene for a constitutional convention that could have a generational impact on how children are educated, our coast is protected, the taxes we pay and the rights that all Louisianans enjoy.
He wants all of this accomplished in just two weeks – from May 20 to June 3 – and to happen at the same time that the Legislature is wrapping up its work on hundreds of other bills moving through the process.
This rushed convention proposal is a grotesque overreach that doesn’t give ordinary citizens nearly enough time, information or input into what is being done in their name.
The constitutional convention should come as a big surprise to anyone who followed Landry’s campaign for office last fall. Backed by big-money donors and the endorsement of Donald Trump, Landry ran as a genial Cajun who hates crime, loves fossil fuel extraction and would move the state in a more conservative direction.
He barely mentioned the constitution during the fall campaign. And the governor still hasn’t said what he actually wants to change about the state’s founding charter – or why it has to be changed before June 3.
Landry’s legislative allies have tried to allay fears by claiming they simply want to shrink the constitution by taking things out and putting them into law, where they can be changed more easily by a simple vote of the Legislature. They promise a limited convention that will focus on rewriting the articles that govern taxes and spending.
Once lawmakers convene a constitutional convention, however, anything and everything could be on the table for debate. The stakes are pretty major.
The constitution ensures that the state sales tax can’t apply to prescription drugs, groceries and home utilities. The constitution safeguards funding for coastal protection and restoration, so the Legislature can’t raid those funds when there’s a budget crunch. It protects the retirement security of teachers, school bus drivers and other public employees, who don’t pay into the Social Security system and rely on their public pensions to sustain them in retirement.
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The constitution protects funding for public schools, and ensures that state dollars are distributed fairly among school districts through the Minimum Foundation Program formula so that politicians don’t get to divide or divert the money. It protects Medicaid dollars that flow to hospitals and nursing homes, and salary stipends for police, firefighters and other local first responders.
The constitution protects the homestead exemption, which keeps the first $75,000 of your home’s value from being subject to property taxes.
All of these protections could be on the table. Removing these protections from the constitution and placing them in statute makes them vulnerable to change. All it would take to tax your prescriptions, or remove the homestead exemption, is a vote of the Legislature.
The last time Louisiana’s constitution was rewritten was in 1973, and it was a much longer, more orderly and transparent process. Edwin Edwards had just been elected governor, and called for a constitutional convention during his campaign. The Legislature made sure the voters had a voice, passing a bill that called for the election of 105 delegates – one from each House district – in the 1972 elections (the governor, then as now, had 27 appointments).
The convention itself lasted a whole year – from January 1973 to January 1974 – with delegates sometimes meeting five days a week. Landry, by contrast, wants all this business wrapped up in just TWO weeks, starting May 20.
No one would dispute that our constitution has grown long and complex in the last 50 years. The Public Affairs Research Council tells us it’s the fourth-largest constitution in the country – at more than 77,000 words. It’s been amended 216 times in the past 49 years. There is something in there for everyone to hate.
But each of those amendments is there for a very good reason: At some point during the last half century, two-thirds of the House and Senate, and a majority of Louisiana voters, decided that it was worth putting in the state constitution.
People can disagree on whether the constitution should be overhauled – which provisions should stay and what should go. But a process this important shouldn’t be rushed through in two weeks, with no election mandate and no opportunity for the public to weigh in by picking delegates. An undertaking this important deserves at least as much time, scrutiny and public input as the last time.
TALLULAH, La. (WLBT) – One of the two Goon Squad victims who later won a civil suit against Rankin County and the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department was arrested by the Louisiana State Police Wednesday night.
According to officials, Eddie Terrell Parker is currently being held in the Madison Parish Jail without bond on at least two pages of charges.
These charges include multiple narcotics violations, possession with intent to distribute, felon in possession of a firearm, and carrying a concealed weapon.
No other information has been released at this time.
This is a developing story. More updates will come as further information is released.
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Demand for more Midwest data centers skyrockets
What are data centers and why are they needed?
Louisiana has finalized details on another $10 billion data center, this one from Hut 8 in West Feliciana Parish.,
Hut 8, which develops and operates an integrated portfolio of power, digital infrastructure and compute assets, said more than 1,000 construction workers will be on site of its River Bend artificial intelligence (AI) data center campus at its peak.
Anthropic, an artificial intelligence company whose flagship chatbot is Claude, has signed a long-term deal to use the facility, Hut 8 and the state announced Dec. 17.
“It’s a transformational and generational project for our parish and region,” West Feliciana Parish President Kenny Havard said in an interview with USA Today Network. “The possibilities really are endless.”
The official announcement and details come after months of preparation from the parish government and its partnership with the state for the data center on which construction has been underway for months.
It’s the second $10 billion plus data center announced in Louisiana during the past two years. Meta’s massive data center project is under way in northeastern Louisiana’s Richland Parish. Meta originally announced a $10 billion investment but has since increased that scope to at least $25 billion.
“Hut 8’s investment in River Bend builds on our track record of attracting global-scale projects in the industries of the future,” Gov. Jeff Landry said in a statement. “As the campus grows, it will further cement Louisiana’s position as a national leader in energy and innovation, creating thousands of jobs and reaffirming our ability to compete and win on the global stage.”
Construction is scheduled to be complete in the second quarter of 2027.
“River Bend demonstrates that Louisiana’s economic strategy is taking our state from plans to progress,” Louisiana Economic Development Secretary Susan Bourgeois said in a statement. “This project will generate high-wage jobs and create pathways for Louisianans to build long-term careers in the industries of the future. It’s a clear example of how aligning policy, partnership and people translates into lasting opportunity.”
Greg Hilburn covers state politics for the USA TODAY Network of Louisiana. Follow him on Twitter @GregHilburn1.
Dec. 16 (UPI) — A suspect identified as Micah James Legnon has been arrested by agents from the FBI’s New Iberia office for allegedly planning an attack on federal agents.
Legnon, 29, was a member of the Turtle Island Liberation Front and had communicated with four members who were charged with allegedly planning a series of New Year’s Eve terrorist attacks in the Greater Los Angeles area on Monday, WDSU reported.
He is a resident of New Iberia and was arrested on Friday while driving to New Orleans after FBI agents saw him loading a military-style rifle and body armor into his vehicle and telling others in a Signal chat group that he was traveling to New Orleans.
New Iberia is located about 120 miles west of New Orleans, and Legnon allegedly shared a video that showed multiple firearms, gas canisters and body armor before leaving on Friday.
In that post, Legnon said he was “On my way to NOLA now, be there in about two hours,” but the FBI arrested him while driving east on U.S. Highway 90, according to WWL-TV.
In a Dec. 4 post, Legnon shared a Facebook post showing Customs and Border Protection agents arresting someone and said he wanted to “recreate Waco, Texas,” on the federal officers while referencing the 1993 federal siege on the Branch Davidians compound there.
He is a former Marine who was trained in combat and a self-professed satanist who used the alias “Black Witch” in group chats with four suspects accused of targeting locations throughout California.
Federal prosecutors filed a federal complaint against Legnon and asked the magistrate judge to seal it and related records due to an ongoing investigation.
They asked that it be unsealed on Tuesday, which is a day after the four suspects accused of planning the California terror attacks were charged with related crimes.
The FBI said Legnon had been communicating with the four suspects in California before the arrests were made and charges filed in the respective cases.
The Turtle Island Liberation Front is a far-left, anti-government, anti-capitalist and pro-Palestinian group, according to Attorney General Pam Bondi.
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