PRESIDENT TRUMP TO ATTEND SUPER BOWL IN N.O. 7A MORE COVERAGE OF SUNDAY’S BIG GAME IN SPORTS 1C
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BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA
W e d n e s d ay, F e b r u a ry 5, 2025
“These commitments and my expectation that we can have a great working relationship to make America healthy again is the basis of my support.” U.S. SEN. BILL CASSIDY, R-Baton Rouge
Cassidy votes to confirm Trump nominee RFK Jr.
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La. panel meets in secret to cut spending
Inspired by Elon Musk’s DOGE, Landry’s task force skirting open meeting laws, expert says BY TYLER BRIDGES Staff writer
full Senate. Still, the nominee doesn’t have universal support. That’s why all eyes were on Cassidy as one of a handful of Republican senators who hadn’t endorsed Trump’s controversial pick to run the $1.7 trillion agency. Later in the day, Cassidy explained the reasoning behind his decision to vote for Kennedy after having raised so many reservations about his embrace of disproved studies that link vaccinations to autism and
A newly created commission formed by Gov. Jeff Landry to reduce wasteful government spending has been meeting in secret, which independent experts say violates the state’s open meeting laws. “We’re just Known as the Fiscal Responsibility Program, it talking to people consists of eight state legis- about who we’re lators and Steve Orlando, a going to hire. neighbor and fishing buddy We’re trying to of the governor, and has met decide what twice in the past week. One took place in the main dinwe’re going to ing room of the Governor’s do. They’re not Mansion, the other in the meetings.” governor’s suite of offices at the Capitol. STATE SEN. VALARIE “We’re just talking to peoHODGES, ple about who we’re going R-Denham Springs to hire,” state Sen. Valarie Hodges, R-Denham Springs, said in an interview Tuesday. “We’re trying to decide what we’re going to do. They’re not meetings.” That’s not the view of experts. “We appreciate the governor’s goal to make state government more efficient and fiscally responsible,” said Steven Procopio, president of the Public Affairs Research Council, a Baton Rougebased nonprofit. “However, as a public body, the task force has a legal obligation to hold open meetings. Transparency is not just a requirement under the law — it is essential for building public trust and ensuring the task force has access to diverse perspectives and critical information that could strengthen its work.” In each meeting, a different consulting firm made a pitch to be hired to identify unnecessary government spending, said Hodges and Rep. Jack McFarland, R-Winnfield, another commission member. “We discussed hiring a consulting firm that does
ä See CASSIDY, page 7A
ä See SECRET, page 6A
ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO BY J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE
Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge, confers with an aide during Tuesday’s Senate Finance Committee meeting.
Decision came despite concern about Kennedy’s vaccine stance BY MARK BALLARD Staff writer
WASHINGTON — Health chief nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wouldn’t deny his long-held skepticism about vaccinations, but he agreed not to discourage parents from vaccinating their children — and that was good enough for Louisiana U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy on Tuesday. After much handwringing, Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge, backed President Donald Trump’s controversial pick to run the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services. He said Kennedy and the Trump administration pledged “an unprecedented close collaborative working relationship” with Cassidy as chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which oversees the agency. That collaboration would include plenty of visits and lots of consultations, including input on agency hiring decisions. Without comment, Cassidy joined the 14-13 party-line vote on the Senate Finance Committee that advanced Kennedy’s nomination to the
La. prosecutors dig in on abortion drug case against N.Y. doctor BY MATT BRUCE
but they likely will need a federal judge’s help. It’s shaping up to be a protracted Prosecutors are determined to uphill legal battle for Louisiana ultimately get a New York doctor authorities, because it seems clear into state court in Louisiana to face New York’s governor and state atfelony charges for allegedly pre- torney general will do whatever scribing abortion pills to a preg- necessary to block extradition of nant West Baton Rouge teenager, Dr. Margaret “Maggie” Carpen-
Staff writer
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ter to Louisiana. She was indicted Friday in a first-of-its-kind criminal indictment in this state or anywhere in the nation. Carpenter, 55, was indicted by a West Baton Rouge grand jury for selling mifepristone tablets causing the pregnant teen to have a miscarriage that ended her preg-
nancy. A separate indictment Friday alleged the teen’s Port Allen mother coerced her daughter to take one of the pills, after the teen bought them online from Carpenter’s Nightingale Medical clinic in upstate New York. The Louisiana Attorney General’s Office plans to work closely
with Tony Clayton, the district attorney of the West Baton Rouge Parish, on piercing the Empire State’s laws that protect doctors who provide abortion care and prescribe related medicine. “It’s important to remember
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ä See DOCTOR, page 6A
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