Congress’ temporary budget deal to keep the government open for three months also keeps the National Flood Insurance Program from expiring in Louisiana and other states during hurricane season.

President Joe Biden officially signed Congress’ continuing resolution Thursday to avoid a government shutdown until Dec. 20, but sets up another funding battle at the end when both sides know who control the White House.

“Our state is still picking up the pieces that Hurricane Francine left behind, and our communities need all the help they can get,” Louisiana Republican U.S. Sen. John Kennedy said of the CR. “I’m thankful we’ve delivered Louisianians additional disaster aid and protected their flood insurance so that the program doesn’t expire in the middle of hurricane season.”

Louisiana Republican U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy also voted for the temporary budget deal that propped up the flood insurance program again before it expired Sept. 30.

“Nobody wants a shutdown,” Cassidy said. “We must keep the National Flood Insurance Program going, put more money into FEMA’s disaster relief fund, continue to pay our troops and give the Secret Service additional resources to protect (former) President Trump. While I’m disappointed the SAVE Act was not included, this bill gives us the time to find a lasting solution without harming Americans.”

The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act (SAVE Act) would require people to prove they are U.S. citizens before they can vote. It is already illegal for non-citizens to vote in all federal elections and critics believe it would add barriers for legal voters who can’t easily access their citizenship documents.

U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson of Shreveport had proposed a six-month budget extension that would have included the SAVE Act, but it failed to pass, necessitating the final deal.

“The best play under the circumstances was the CR with the SAVE Act,” Johnson said ahead of this week’s final deal. “But we came a little short of the goal line, so we have to go with the last available play.”

Trump urged House Republicans to let the government shut down if they did not get the voting legislation passed along with a funding extension. But Johnson told his conference that it would be “political malpractice” to do that so close to an election, citing polling indicating voters probably would blame Republicans for a shutdown.

More: Louisiana Congressman Clay Higgins’ Haitian tweet draws sharp criticism as racist

Greg Hilburn covers state politics for the USA TODAY Network of Louisiana. Follow him on Twitter @GregHilburn1.

Lana Del Rey and Jeremy Dufrene are reportedly married!

The “Born To Die” singer, 39, and the alligator tour guide tied the knot in Louisiana, on Thursday, September 26, according to photos and videos published by DailyMail.com.

Del Rey wore a floor-length white wedding gown for her nuptials, which took place by the water in Des Allemandes – the same bayou Dufrene uses to host his popular tours, per the outlet.

The Grammy nominee’s father, Robert Grant, reportedly walked Del Rey down the aisle to where Dufrene, dressed in a black suit, white dress shirt and leather shoes was awaiting his bride.

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Del Rey’s mother Patricia Ann Hill, 68, her sister Caroline Grant and brother Charlie Hill-Grant all attended the couple’s wedding, reported the outlet.

According to Dailymail.com, following the nuptials, the newly wedded couple and guests reportedly celebrated the reception along the public harbor – near where the exchanging of vows took place.

The news comes just hours after it was confirmed that Del Rey and Dufrene had obtained a marriage license in Louisiana’s Lafourche Parish Clerk of Court on Monday, September 23, according to court records obtained by Us Weekly.

While they were first linked late last month, Del Rey has uploaded pictures of herself with Dufrene on Facebook dating back to 2019 when she first went on one of his wildlife tours.

Del Rey and Dufrene made their public debut earlier this month when the alligator tour guide accompanied Del Rey to Karen Elson’s wedding at New York City’s Electric Lady Studios. (Elson, 45, married Lee Foster, who owns the recording studio.)

The “Summertime Sadness” singer has previously been linked to Barrie-James O’Neill, Francesco Carrozzini, G-Eazy, Sean Larkin and Clayton Johnson. While speaking with Rolling Stone in 2014, she revealed that she thrives in intense relationships.

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“It’s been beautiful, but it’s been confusing because when that’s your prerogative, things don’t end in a traditional way,” Del Rey told the outlet in July 2014. “You don’t have that traditional relationship where maybe you go out with couples at night, or you do normal things. It’s more of an extension of the creative process.””

In the profile, Del Rey confirmed that she was “really looking for an equal” and wasn’t afraid of an age-gap romance.

“I sort of have an affinity for really good, strong, self-assured people,” she said. “I would say I haven’t met them as much in people who are in their 20s. So for me, I have nothing in common necessarily with somebody who’s in their 20s — yet. That I know of, thus far.”

AP
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Louisiana prosecutors on Thursday dismissed the most serious remaining charge in the deadly 2019 arrest of Ronald Greene, dropping a negligent homicide count against a veteran trooper seen on body-camera video dragging the Black motorist by his ankle shackles and forcing him to lie face down before he stopped breathing.

The move coming just a month before Kory York’s trial marks only the latest withering of a case that began in 2022 with five officers indicted on a range of charges over the stunning, punching and pepper-spraying of Greene following a high-speed chase.

Now, only two still face charges, multiple felony malfeasance counts against York and another officer, all but eliminating the chance that anyone will face significant prison time in a death troopers initially blamed on a car crash.

“This whole thing started with a lie and a coverup and it’s going to end the same way,” a furious Mona Hardin told The Associated Press when told of the latest dropped charge in her son’s death.

“You have so much evidence yet no one wants to be the one pointing the finger against killer cops,” she said through tears. “They killed my son and no one gives a rat’s ass.”

Union Parish District Attorney John Belton said in a statement that even though the grand jury indicted York for negligent homicide, the evidence “does not meet the ‘beyond a reasonable doubt’ standard necessary to secure a conviction at trial.”

Belton also dropped a malfeasance count against the recently retired York that stemmed from authorities’ still-unproven suspicion that Greene was pepper-sprayed even after he was handcuffed.

“It’s clear to me that the case should never have been indicted,” said York attorney Mike Small, adding he seeks full exoneration of his client at his October 28 trial. “I am confident that once the jury looks a those videos they’re not going to see any illegal touching of Ronald Greene by Kory York.”

Greene’s May 2019 death sparked national outrage and was among several beatings of Black men by Louisiana troopers that prompted the US Justice Department to open an ongoing civil rights investigation into the state police.

But the latest dismissal underscores a weakness in the case that has also discouraged the Justice Department from pursuing charges: After years of investigating, federal and state authorities failed to pinpoint what, exactly, caused Greene’s death during the arrest.

State prosecutors were long skeptical the negligent homicide charge would hold up in the face of autopsy reports that cited “complications of cocaine use” among contributing factors to Greene’s death. Others included troopers’ repeated use of a stun gun, “physical struggle, prone restraint, blunt-force injury and neck compression,” but the forensic pathologist in Arkansas who examined Greene declined to identify which factor or factors were most lethal.

The case has been shrouded in secrecy from its outset when state authorities told grieving relatives the 49-year-old died in a car crash at the end of a high-speed chase near Monroe — an account questioned immediately by an emergency room doctor who noted Greene’s bruised, battered body. Still, a coroner’s report listed Greene’s cause of death as a motor vehicle accident, a state police crash report omitted any mention of troopers using any force and 462 days passed before the state police even launched an internal investigation.

All the while, officials from then-Gov. John Bel Edwards on down refused to release the body camera video of Greene’s arrest. That all changed in 2021 when AP obtained and published the long-suppressed footage showing troopers swarming Greene even as he appeared to raise his hands, plead for mercy and wail, “I’m your brother! I’m scared!”

Troopers repeatedly jolted him with stun guns before he could even get out of the car, with one wrestling him to the ground, putting him in a chokehold and punching him in the face.

One trooper struck Greene in the head with a flashlight and was recorded bragging that he “beat the ever-living f— out of him.” That trooper, Chris Hollingsworth, was widely considered the most culpable of the half-dozen officers involved but died in a high-speed, single-vehicle crash in 2020 hours after he learned he would be fired.

York also played a prominent role in the arrest. He is seen on video pressing Greene’s body to the ground for several minutes and repeatedly ordering him to “shut up” and “lay on your f—— belly like I told you to!” Use-of-force experts say that type of prone restraint could have dangerously restricted Greene’s breathing, and the state police’s own force instructor described the troopers’ actions as “torture and murder.”

For years, Hardin has crisscrossed the country advocating for justice in her son’s death and has vowed to not even bury his ashes until she gets it.

Now she is questioning if that day will ever come.

“I hate that my son is one of countless others,” she said. “There’s a lot that could be fixed in Louisiana that will never be fixed because of choices like this.”