Louisiana
AI regulation clashing with business lobby in Louisiana
Bill Advances Honoring Shreveport Civil Rights Icons
Louisiana lawmakers move forward with bill honoring Shreveport civil rights icons Reverend Harry Blake Senior and Virginia Green Evans.
(The Center Square) − Louisiana lawmakers have filed more than 20 bills this session touching on artificial intelligence, but only a narrow slice of them has moved so far.
The clearest momentum has come on bills dealing with child exploitation. Senate Bill 42 by Sen. Rick Edmonds, R-Baton Rouge, which prohibits using artificial intelligence to create child sexual abuse materials, passed the Senate 36-0 and was sent to the House the next day.
Senate Bill 110 by Sen. Heather Cloud, R-Turkey Creek, bars using a child’s image to train an artificial intelligence model to produce child sexual abuse materials, also advanced out of the Senate and is now pending in the House Administration of Criminal Justice Committee. But the broader regulatory push has moved far more slowly.
Rep. Josh Carlson, R-Lafayette, told The Center Square the efforts have run into familiar resistance from business groups wary of state-by-state regulation.
“Anything that effects business they say is bad for business,” Carlson told The Center Square.
Carlson has a bill that would create a Louisiana AI Bill of Rights, restrict certain chatbot uses involving minors, create disclosure rules for bots and AI-generated advertising, and bar the state from contracting for AI products tied to foreign countries of concern. Carlson is still working to get his bill added to the Commerce committee’s agenda.Another bill that has managed to make progress is HB190 by Rep. Laurie Schlege, R-Metarie. It passed the House 98-0. Two days after, an op-ed submitted to The Center Square from Citizens for a New Louisiana charged the law as “one that threatens to stifle innovation, burden small businesses and startups.” The op-ed suggested amending the bill, but Schlegel hasn’t budged so far.
Senate Bill 246 by Sen. Jay Luneau, D-Alexandria, was scheduled for Senate floor debate Monday but was postponed twice, first to Tuesday and then to Wednesday. The delay followed Luneau’s promise to the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry that he would amend the bill after the group sent a memo warning it could create “unnecessary compliance burdens for businesses operating across the state.”
“AI systems are inherently interstate and global, making them better suited for a consistent federal framework rather than fragemented state oversight,” the memo continued. “SB246 risks placing Louisiana at a competitive disadvantage while duplicating efforts more appropriately handled by Congress.” The memo mentioned a December executive order from the Trump administration which instructed federal officials to identify “onerous” state AI laws and said states with such laws could be barred from receiving certain remaining BEAD broadband funds, to the maximum extent allowed by federal law.
Louisiana has $800 million in Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program funding that could be revoked. Responding to questions about concerns that his bill might violate that order, Edmonds told The Center Square, “I don’t see this as over regulation.” He said that, so far, he has heard no concerns with his bill.
Edmonds acknowledged concerns that overregulation could inhibit the use and development of AI, but said that his bill was specific and would not.
That pageant feeds into the Miss Louisiana pageant, which is part of the Miss America system. The winner of Miss Louisiana Saturday night will move on to the Miss America pageant.
Addison’s pageant platform is encouraging girls to build confidence in themselves — Confidence to Career, Jackson said.
“She competed last night for the preliminary in talent and on stage question and will compete tonight in beauty and fitness,” Jackson said.
On Saturday at the beginning of the pageant, the field will be cut to 11 contestants, and then the top five.
“One of the top five will get a crown,” Jackson said.
The preliminary competitions and the pageant will be streamed on MissLouisiana.com and the Saturday pageant will be broadcast live on KNOE-TV.
“They let me see her for five minutes yesterday,” she said. “This is the experience of a lifetime. She is making friendships and relationships that will last a lifetime. We are so proud of her. Addison is such a sweet girl.”
She is the youngest of three sisters, Allison and Anna Claire Jackson.
Angela said her husband, Craig Jackson, is particularly excited and proud of all three of his daughters.
“He’s a great girl dad,” she said. “They think he hung the moon, and he did.”
Louisiana
After redistricting battles, Southern gathers for Juneteenth celebration: ‘Continue the fight’
Hundreds of community members, alumni and students gathered Thursday to observe Juneteenth on the Southern University campus in Baton Rouge.
The theme of the festivities was “celebrating freedom through culture and community,” but weeks after Louisiana’s bitter redistricting battles, the speakers Thursday morning had one message driving their remarks: Get out and vote.
“Freedom does not come in on the wheels of inevitability,” Louisiana Supreme Court Associate Justice John Michael Guidry said to the crowd. “But it takes the prodigious work and the tireless efforts of those who are willing to continue the fight.”
Great Beginnings summer camper Myni, 4, gets a hello kitty face painting during Southern’s Juneteenth celebration on Thursday, June 18, 2026 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Staff photo by Michael Johnson
The speech kicked off a day of discussions and cultural events centered on the holiday of Juneteenth, which commemorates June 19, 1865, when Union Gen. Gordon Granger brought news of emancipation to enslaved people in Texas more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued.
Speakers at Southern emphasized the need for protection of hard-won rights for Black Americans in the context of redistricting. The sentiments followed a contentious state legislative session that ended with the elimination of one of Louisiana’s two majority-Black congressional districts after the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Louisiana v. Callais.
“That Voting Rights Act is under attack,” Guidry said. “There’s voter intimidation, there’s voter suppression, there are voter ID laws and all types of laws and legal decisions that are trying to deny us our right to vote, and we are the ones who have to go forward and litigate these issues.”
The day opened with a libation ceremony and a rendition of “Lift Every Voice and Sing” by Southern University student Claire Floyd.
Southern University alumnus Jeanet Cazenave said she felt it was important to celebrate Juneteenth on campus as not only a relative of the first dean of Southern University but also a descendant of the GU272, a group of enslaved individuals who were sold to plantations in Louisiana in 1838 by Jesuit priests to pay the debts of what is now Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.
Juneteenth “means everything,” Cazenave said. “It means the past, the present and the future.”
BATON ROUGE, La. (KLFY) — Governor Landry has officially declared Louisiana under state of emergency.
The state emergency declaration covers Avoyelles, Lafourche, Pointe Coupee, St. Landry, St. Tammany and Terrebonne parishes.
The declaration was issued Thursday following the impacts of Tropical Storm Arthur, which brough rainfall and strong storms to parts of the state on June 17 and 18.
Officials said the National Weather Service has confirmed three tornadoes tied to the storm system.
Officials also reported record or near-record rainfall totals in Avoyelles and Pointe Coupee parishes over a 12-hour period.
The order allows the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness to coordinate resources and provide assistance to local governments if needed.
Certain state purchasing and bidding requirements have been temporarily suspended to speed up emergency response efforts.
The declaration took effect immediately and will remain in place through July 18 unless it is lifted or extended.
State officials are urging residents to stay weather aware, avoid flooded roadways and follow guidance from local emergency managers.
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