Louisiana

Francine path updates: Where will forecasted hurricane make landfall?

Published

2 years ago

September 10, 2024

Press Room

Francine path updates: Where will forecasted hurricane make landfall?

Editor’s note: Read Tuesday’s updates on Francine as the storm takes aim at the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Tropical Storm Francine, which formed Monday, has taken a slow, meandering path across the Gulf. It’s now gathering speed and taking direct aim on the Louisiana Gulf Coast, with landfall expected there sometime on Wednesday.

“Francine is anticipated to be just offshore of the coasts of northeastern Mexico and southern Texas through this afternoon, and then move across the northwestern Gulf of Mexico, making landfall in Louisiana on Wednesday,” the National Hurricane Center said in a midday Tuesday forecast. Towns closest to the location of expected landfall include Morgan City and Houma, Louisiana.

New Orleans should brace for major flooding rain, winds of up to 73 mph, the possibility of tornadoes and 3-5 feet of storm surge, the local weather service office said Tuesday. The city, infamously ravaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, was just to the east of Francine’s worst impacts, according to Tuesday forecasts.

After landfall, the storm’s center is expected to move into Mississippi “on Wednesday night or Thursday.”

As the system approaches the central Gulf Coast and eventually pushes inland across Louisiana, an increased threat of life-threatening storm surge, hurricane-force winds, and considerable flash flooding is anticipated, the hurricane center warned.

As Francine neared, authorities called for a mandatory evacuation of residents in three coastal communities, schools were shut and officials distributed sandbags.

Tropical Storm Francine tracker

What’s causing Francine to move north?

Other weather systems are shoving Francine around: An approaching trough of low pressure over Texas should cause Francine to turn northeast at a faster forward speed during the next 24-36 hours, “and this motion should bring the center to the Louisiana coast sometime Wednesday afternoon or evening,” the hurricane center said.

“After landfall, Francine should turn more northward between the trough and a mid-level ridge over the eastern United States.”

Louisiana no stranger to storms

The most recent hurricane to hit Louisiana was Ida in 2021, AccuWeather said. “Between 2019 and 2021, Louisiana had eight tropical storms or hurricane landfalls, including major hurricanes Laura and Ida,” noted Alyssa Glenny, AccuWeather meteorologist, in an online report.

Heavy rain and inland flood threat

Along with the threat from strong winds and storm surge comes the threat for heavy rainfall:

“Francine is expected to bring heavy rainfall and the risk of considerable flash and urban flooding for far northeast Mexico into the far southern coast of Texas today and across much of Louisiana and Mississippi through Thursday,” the hurricane center said. Flash and urban flooding is probable across the Mid-South Wednesday night into Friday morning.

Rainfall amounts of 4 to 8 inches, with local amounts up to 12 inches are forecast across much of central and eastern Louisiana and Mississippi through Thursday night, the National Weather Service said.

Francine spaghetti models

Spaghetti model illustrations include an array of forecast tools and models, and not all are created equal. The Hurricane Center uses only the top four or five highest performing models to help make its forecasts.

Source link

Click to comment

Louisiana

Parole committee for people convicted by nonunanimous juries advances

Published

2 hours ago

April 16, 2026

Press Room

$Parole committee for people convicted by nonunanimous juries advances$

Incarcerated people with nonunanimous jury convictions would be able to send an application for parole to the committee within its first year.

Veronica Camenzuli
| LSU Manship School News Service

A Louisiana bill to review nonunanimous jury convictions advanced in a Senate committee.
The bill would create a temporary committee to recommend parole for incarcerated individuals.
The law allowing nonunanimous verdicts, rooted in an 1898 law to dilute Black jurors’ votes, was abolished in 2018.
Democrats and advocacy groups oppose the bill, arguing it does not go far enough to correct past injustices.

BATON ROUGE — A bill that would allow a committee to recommend parole to incarcerated Louisiana residents who received convictions through nonunanimous jury verdicts advanced 4-3 along party lines in a Senate judiciary committee.

Senate Bill 215 would allow the Department of Public Safety and Corrections to create a committee to review the appeal records of cases with nonunanimous convictions.

Incarcerated people with nonunanimous jury convictions would be able to send an application for parole to the committee within its first year. The committee would end after three years.

Democrats and advocacy groups opposed the bill, saying it did not go far enough to correct the problems.

The bill is meant to address possibly unjust convictions that are no longer legal in Louisiana after a constitutional amendment requiring unanimous verdicts passed in 2018.

The original law, allowing for convictions on as little as a 9-3 vote, was part of the 1898 constitutional convention, and it was designed to dilute Black jurors’ votes.

Louisiana changed the requirement to a 10-2 vote during the 1973 constitutional convention. Oregon, the only other state that allowed nonunanimous juries, had the same requirement.

Under the new bill, clerks of court would provide applicants with their records free of charge, and district attorneys and victims could respond at hearings.

Sen. Patrick McMath, R-Mandeville, who wrote the bill, said the legislation was a compromise between district attorneys who believed in the validity of convictions and criminal justice advocates.

“There’s likely not a way that either of those groups can come to a full consensus, but I think it was important to have the discussions and to continue to have the discussions,” McMath said.

Bradley R. Burget, president of the Louisiana District Attorney’s Association, supported the bill.

“We’re not exactly happy with it,” Burget said. “There’s a lot of the members of the DA’s association that may not be 100% for this, but I think this is something that they can live with.”

Zachary Daniels, the association’s executive director, liked the bill’s provision giving the committee authority to determine which nonunanimous convictions are just since “many of these contain strong evidence and are valid convictions where the prosecutor played by the rules at the time.”

Before the legislative session, the association found at least 1,215 cases a committee could analyze.

Daniels said it would be impossible to retry all of these cases because witnesses, officers and victims may no longer be available, and evidence may no longer exist.

The extensive list of issues the committee could consider includes the length of jury deliberations, the strength of the state’s case, the effectiveness of the defense attorney and evidence of racism.

Former Rep. Randal Gaines, who is now chair of the Democratic Party of Louisiana, filed a similar bill in 2022 that included the same list of issues that could be reviewed.

Herman Evans, who spent 37 years in prison after a nonunanimous jury convicted him in 1989 for a second-degree murder he did not commit, opposed the bill. Even after the perpetrator confessed in 2012, Evans did not get a hearing until 2024.

“That bill ain’t going to do nothing,” Evan said. “They’ve got the parole board. They’ve got the clemency board. It’s about the same board. And it costs about the same if you bring them back and let them get denied.”

Daniels said the expected cost to implement the bill is $1.8 million, based on a study resolution written for the 2025 legislative session by Sen. Charles Owen, R-Rosepine.

Owen also filed House Bill 219 that would allow courts to have resentencing hearings for nonunanimous convictions. The House Committee on Administration has not heard the bill yet.

One issue that arose in the meeting was the governor’s impact on the committee.

The governor would appoint to the committee three retired appellate court judges or Louisiana Supreme Court justices, one retired district attorney or assistant district attorney and one retired public defender.

The district attorney and public defender appointees would come from a list of three nominations from the Louisiana District Attorneys Association and the state public defender.

Although all five members would need to agree that a conviction was unfair, the current bill would allow the governor to make final decisions on releasing applicants.

The current bill does not provide details on the governor’s power. Daniels said the bill would eventually include that language after input from attorneys from the governor’s office.

Daniels also noted that there may be some conflict between the committee’s final decision and Gov. Jeff Landry’s tough-on-crime approach.

Sarah Gozalo of the Promise of Justice Initiative expressed concerns about the governor’s ultimate power.

“If we find that miscarriage of justice, the solution is, we will ask the governor — the one person who, in 2018, opposed getting rid of nonunanimous jurors,” Gozalo said.

Other opponents of the bill suggested keeping the bill in committee until it was amended to address their concerns.

Bruce Reilly, deputy director of Voice of the Experienced, and Erica Navalance, a criminal defense attorney, recommended adding post-conviction evidence to the records the committee sees to prove claims of ineffective defense counsel or prosecutorial misconduct.

McMath declined to defer the bill.

“I think that holding it up in this committee doesn’t necessarily give the chance to continue to move on through the process, where we all know that things sometimes can change and get new input,” McMath said.

Sen. Royce Duplessis, D-New Orleans, who had a similar bill in 2025 that did not pass, objected to the bill’s advancement.

“Just know that this is not an easy objection for me,” Duplessis said. “And if this bill does advance, I want to continue, or at least I want to work with you, to try to find a solution, because it’s been stated repeatedly, we’re not quite there.”

Source link

Louisiana

Herrmann’s resilience anchors Louisiana’s pitching staff

Published

15 hours ago

April 16, 2026

Press Room

Herrmann’s resilience anchors Louisiana’s pitching staff

LAFAYETTE — Louisiana’s success on the mound this season has started with one name at the top of the rotation: Andrew Herrmann.

The fifth-year senior has been the backbone of the Ragin’ Cajuns’ pitching staff, leading the nation in innings pitched (63.2), starts (10) and complete games (three). His durability and consistency have helped stabilize a Louisiana team that has relied heavily on its arms throughout the year.

Herrmann’s journey to this point, however, hasn’t been smooth.

Throughout his collegiate career, he battled shoulder injuries that impacted his velocity and threatened to derail his development. Instead of fading, Herrmann adjusted, dedicating significant time to rehabilitation and refining his mechanics.

He credits pitching coach Taylor Sandefur for helping him regain form and confidence on the mound.

The work has paid off, as Herrmann has emerged not only as a statistical leader, but also as an emotional cornerstone for the team.

“This team, I mean the amount of hours we put out on the baseball field just working together,” Herrmann said. “I’d die for this team. I’d die for each one of those guys. … Just being able to work with those guys and see the effort that they put in each day has really kind of drawn me to it.”

For Herrmann, the season is about more than numbers. In his final year, his focus is on leaving a lasting impact on the program and helping elevate those around him.

Louisiana will look to continue its momentum this weekend with a three-game Sun Belt road series at Troy. The series opener is scheduled for Friday at 6 p.m.

————————————————————
Stay in touch with us anytime, anywhere.

To reach the newsroom or report a typo/correction, click HERE.

Sign up for newsletters emailed to your inbox. Select from these options: Breaking News, Evening News Headlines, Latest COVID-19 Headlines, Morning News Headlines, Special Offers

Follow us on Twitter

Like us on Facebook

Follow us on Instagram

Subscribe to our Youtube channel

Source link

Louisiana

Louisiana Brings Suit Over Federal Obstacle to Its Voter ID Law

Published

1 day ago

April 15, 2026

Press Room

Louisiana Brings Suit Over Federal Obstacle to Its Voter ID Law

Louisiana is suing a federal elections agency over what the state calls its right to ensure that those who register to vote provide sufficient proof they’re US citizens.

The US Election Assistance Commission improperly barred Louisiana from implementing its 2024 law by failing to approve state-specific additions to the federal voter registration form, the state says. But the Constitution gives states the authority to establish voter qualifications for federal elections, according to the suit filed Tuesday with the US District Court for the Western District of Louisiana.

The EAC’s actions violate the National Voter Registration Act and the Administrative Procedure Act, the state claims.

As a “sovereign State,” Louisiana “has the constitutional right, power, and privilege to establish voting qualifications and regulate the conduct of federal elections, including voter registration requirements,” the state says.

In 2024, Louisiana lawmakers passed a bill that memorialized the state’s constitutional requirement that eligible voters must be US citizens, and added a requirement that voter applicants show proof of citizenship.

In a notice to the EAC, Louisiana gave the agency an opportunity to approve revisions to the state-specific instructions on the voter registration application before finalizing the changes, the state says.

Louisiana’s request for modifications to the federal form included one option to ask prospective voters to include their unique immigration number, or if an applicant doesn’t have such a number, to provide their place of birth, sex, and mother’s maiden name. The second option would be ask prospective voters to include that same information as an attachment to the federal form.

On Jan. 8, the EAC board voted to reject either option. The vote was 2-2, but the proposal needed a majority to pass, Louisiana says.

Louisiana has an “indisputable interest in preventing election fraud and preserving the integrity of its election process,” the suit says.

Louisiana is asking the court to hold EAC’s decision unlawful and to set aside its findings, or find that the agency acted in an arbitrary and capricious manner and committed an abuse of discretion. The state also wants the court to declare that, to the extent the NVRA requires Louisiana to use the federal form to register individuals to vote, the act is unconstitutional as applied to the state.

The state also seeks “reasonable” attorneys’ fees, and a court order that the federal form in its current state be found to be unconstitutional, or that the law leaves a state “free to request whatever additional information it determines is necessary to ensure that voters meet the qualifications it has the constitutional authority to establish.”

EAC media representatives didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about the lawsuit.

The Office of the Louisiana Attorney General represents the state and Secretary of State Nancy Landry (R). Plauché & Carr LLP also represents Landry.

The case is Louisiana v. U.S. Election Assistance Comm’n, W.D. La., No. 3:26-cv-01191, complaint 4/14/26.

Source link