Louisiana’s colleges and universities are taking home millions for construction and other budget needs. It’s perhaps the last such funding boost before the loss of state tax revenue could slash a quarter of a billion dollars from their operations in the 2026-27 academic year. 

The state budget for fiscal year 2024-25, which started Monday, includes approximately $589 million in immediate construction for higher education and around $93 million for research, campus security and other special projects. 

Unless state lawmakers make sweeping constitutional changes, higher education and public health care are likely to face drastic cuts once a 0.45% portion of the state sales tax expires June 30, 2025.

Building boon 

The state construction budget, detailed in House Bill 2, provides allocations for each state university system, including an investment in the planning process for a new LSU library at its main campus. Overall, it includes less immediate money for campuses than the previous year, and it lays out promised funds for upcoming years. 

Projects in the LSU System are slated to receive about $186 million this year. In addition to planning a new library — more money will be delivered when construction is underway — around $65 million has been allocated for a new science building, and another $51 million was set aside for renovations at the medical education building laboratory at LSU Health Sciences Shreveport. 

The Southern University System will receive about $67 million. The largest portion, $22 million, will be used for a new science, technology, engineering and math complex at the main campus in Baton Rouge. 

The University of Louisiana System is slated to receive around $136 million. That includes $16 million to renovate the health science complex at the University of Louisiana Monroe and $14 million to replace a major academic building at Northwestern State University. 

The Louisiana Community and Technical College System will receive around $34 million. Its biggest project is $21 million for a new building and campus development at Baton Rouge Community College 

Search through a complete list of projects receiving funding this year in the state construction plan in this interactive chart. 

Extra cash 

Each system is slated to receive a little extra cash for special projects, research and campus improvements. 

LSU will receive $6 million for graduate assistantships, a continuation of an investment made last year to increase the minimum stipend for degree-seeking graduate assistants. The LSU AgCenter will receive $4 million to modernize equipment and an additional $2 million for research and extension-related projects. 

In the University of Louisiana System, Grambling State University will receive $250,000 for new uniforms for its World Famed Tiger Marching Band, Nicholls State University will receive $125,000 for campus police equipment and the University of Louisiana Monroe will receive $4 million for its pharmacy school.

The Southern University System will receive $3 million for accreditation-related expenses at Southern University New Orleans, $1 million for crime prevention in Baton Rouge and $250,000 for the workforce development center at Southern University Shreveport. 

Search through a complete list of projects receiving funding this year in the state construction plan in this interactive chart. 

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry has vetoed a bill that would have made it illegal to deceive voters through the use of artificial intelligence-generated deepfakes.

While similar legislation outlawing the use of deceptive audio, images and videos for political purposes has passed uncontroversially in a growing number of other states, Louisiana’s governor claimed such a law infringes on the First Amendment rights of AI companies.

“While I applaud the efforts to prevent false political attacks, I believe this bill creates serious First Amendment concerns as it relates to emerging technologies,” Landry wrote of his veto last month. “The law is far from settled on this issue, and I believe more information is needed before such regulations are enshrined into law.”

Louisiana’s law would have held that: “No person shall cause to be distributed or transmitted any oral, visual, digital, or written material containing any image, audio, or video of a known candidate or of a person who is known to be affiliated with the candidate which he knows or should be reasonably expected to know has been created or intentionally manipulated to create a realistic but false image, audio, or video with the intent to deceive a voter or injure the reputation of a known candidate in an election.”

In vetoing the bill, the governor also pointed to a resolution directing the state’s Joint Legislative Committee on Technology and Cybersecurity to make recommendations on how the state should be using AI, a process that’s also underway in many other states.

Landry also vetoed a bill that would have required deepfake media to be watermarked, a new requirement in Connecticut, among other states.

Convincing deepfake media threatens to undermine a political process already being confused by social media algorithms. Numerous states are rushing to minimize the potential harm that generative AI tools could wreak on the nation’s information landscape. Arizona, Florida and Wisconsin are among the states that have passed laws adding AI provisions to laws designed to prevent deception in political campaigns. 

Megan Bellamy, vice president of law and policy at Voting Rights Lab, recently told StateScoop that deepfakes are an especially pernicious threat to democracy.

“AI-generated content can grab the voter’s attention, reach them faster and spread in more of a viral way than state board of elections and county board of elections and all of these trusted sources can overcome,” she said. 

In Arizona, repeatedly failing to label AI-generated political materials, or doing so with the intent to incite violence, was this year made a felony.

Landry, a Republican who formerly served as the state’s attorney general, also currently finds himself amid other controversies — he signed a law last month that will require public classrooms to display the Ten Commandments. The American Civil Liberties Union said it plans to file a lawsuit, a fight it won at least once, including in 2002 when the group’s Maryland branch dismissed a lawsuit against the City and County of Frederick for displaying the biblical text in a public park.

The July 4th holiday is upon us in Louisiana.  School kids have been out in cities like Lafayette, New Iberia, Opelousas, and Crowley for more than a month. That means our mindset along the bayou is less about school days and more about sun days. That’s the sun as in fun in the sun as opposed to our weekly day of rest.

The July 4th holiday falls on a Thursday. Not the best day of the week but at least it’s not a Wednesday. And for a lot of us, the Fourth of July means getting in or on the water. We love to take the boat out to our secret fishing spot and we also love to water ski.

But then again, there is something that is quite relaxing about just going with the flow. You know, taking a float trip down a scenic Louisiana waterway. We have our tubes, our friends, and our tubes for our drinks, and what could go wrong?

Drownings Are On The Increase in Louisiana

From 2020 to 2021 Louisiana saw an increase of 60% in the number of reported drownings. Many of these fatal mishaps occurred in backyard swimming pools or more structured bathing facilities. However, there were more than a few that happened in our state’s lakes, ponds, rivers, and streams.

This got us to wonder, what is Louisiana’s most dangerous body of water.

At first blush, we contemplated the Mississippi River. It’s a very busy waterway and the opportunity for a mishap is quite plentiful. Fortunately, in order to pilot a vessel on the Father of Waters you have to be trained and licensed.

Then we contemplated the Gulf of Mexico. Every year we hear of fatal mishaps that involved the coastal waters of Louisiana. But the problem with the Gulf is where do you draw the line. If a cruise boat passenger sailing from Louisiana falls off the boat near Mexico, is that still a “Louisiana Gulf of Mexico” mishap? 

Louisiana’s Most Dangerous Body of Water is 112 Miles Long

We did some snooping online and discovered through the website, Only in Your State, that the most treacherous body of water in Louisiana only covers a very short distance. To the untrained eye, the surface of the water looks to be calm and peaceful but the danger is lurking beneath the whiskey-brown shade of water that is slowly flowing by.

The body of water listed by Only in Your State as the most dangerous in Louisiana is the Amite River. The river is very popular with sportsmen, especially in the lower 30 some odd miles. So there is a lot of traffic in that part of the river but that’s not why the Amite earns the title of “Most Dangerous”.

Why Is the Amite River Louisiana’s Most Dangerous Body of Water?

The answer to that is two-fold. The river is dangerous because of the limited visibility. You can’t see more than a few inches underwater, that is if you could even stand to open your eyes. So, things that go into the water are seldom seen again. There are also a lot of hidden branches, trees, and debris that can snag a person’s foot while they are swimming.

The second and probably the biggest reason the Amite River is considered to be the “most dangerous” has to do with the popularity of the river. Not only do fishermen love the Amite but those who love a good float trip flock to the Amite River as soon as it’s warm enough to get in the water.

The sheer volume of people creates more opportunities for tragedy especially when you mix in abundant sunshine, coolers of alcohol, and a laissez-less bon temps rouler attitude.

Fortunately, most people who float the Amite River do so with a group. That means people looking out for people. If you do plan on floating this river or any body of water this summer, make sure you have a friend too. Never swim alone and don’t ever dive into water that you don’t know the depth of. Be safe and have fun and remember it is not the river that’s dangerous, it’s the actions of the people on the river that cause the problems.