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BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA
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T h u r s d ay, J u ly 24, 2025
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Council wants more lobbying muscle
Move a reaction to Legislature passing EBR bills BY PATRICK SLOAN-TURNER Staff writer
After the Louisiana Legislature passed a wave of bills that specifically affected Baton Rouge, the Metro Council has taken steps to strengthen its voice at the Capitol. With unanimous approval Wednesday night, the council amended its contract with the cityparish’s lobbyists to ensure they
also work directly at the council’s direction — not just the Mayor’s Office. Several council members took issue with the city-parish’s contract with Courson Nickel, as the lobbyists prioritized the mayor’s agenda during the 2025 session, even as lawmakers advanced bills that tried to strip power from the council and reshape how the city and parish are governed.
rectified for the next legislative session, where they don’t just represent the “The lobbyist contract shifted Mayor’s Office but from reporting to the Metro Coun- they represent the cil and the administration to solely entire council,” reporting to the administration, Hurst said. Dunn and Hurst and so that was a grave concern to me,” council member Cleve Dunn — both Democrats Jr. said in an interview earlier this — said an unusual number of bills Dunn month. The change happened during focused on Baton former Mayor-President Sharon Rouge this year. A bill by Sen. Rick Edmonds, RWeston Broome’s administration. “I want to publicly ask this be Baton Rouge, originally tried to
La. cane farmers optimistic about Coca-Cola’s sugar push
give the mayor-president authority to take over over blighted properties instead of the Metro Council. The bill was later amended and signed by Gov. Jeff Landry as Act 456. Metro Council keeps its authority over blighted properties in the enacted version. Republican representative Lauren Ventrella sponsored a bill changing the makeup of the board that oversees Baton Rouge’s park system, BREC. Act 391 replaces
ä See COUNCIL, page 4A
La. to join anti-DEI college accrediting initiative Southern states uniting to create new agency
BY PATRICK WALL
Staff writer
ture soda. “I’d like to thank all of those in authority at Coca-Cola,” Trump wrote. “This will be a very good move by them.” Despite the splash made by the Coca-Cola announcement, it’s not clear whether and to what extent the Louisiana sugar cane industry will get a boost from the new drink. If price or production are affected, those changes will likely be modest
Louisiana will join other Southern states that are developing a new accrediting agency for public colleges and universities, Gov. Jeff Landry said Tuesday, echoing a conservative complaint that existing accreditors have imposed liberal values on the institu- “This task force tions they evaluate. will ensure Accrediting agenLouisiana’s cies hold significant public sway over universiuniversities ties, which must meet move away accreditors’ quality standards in order for from DEI-driven students to receive mandates federal financial and toward a aid. Lately, the littlesystem rooted known private agenin merit-based cies have come under fire from conservative achievement.” critics. GOV. JEFF LANDRy In April, President Donald Trump said some accreditors “abused their enormous authority” by requiring schools to meet standards related to diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI. Last month, Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, said the public university systems in Florida and five other Southern states — Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas — will create a new accreditor to compete with the “accreditation cartel.” On Tuesday, Landry signed an executive order creating a task force to explore adopting that new accreditor, which he said will offer “an alternative to the out-of-touch accreditation system.” “This task force will ensure Louisiana’s public universities move away from DEI-driven mandates and toward
ä See CANE, page 4A
ä See COLLEGE, page 4A
STAFF FILE PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON
The Louisiana sugar cane industry brings in approximately $4 billion annually.
Expert says move won’t have immediate effect on price, expansion BY HALEY MILLER
and brothers. “It’s easy to get optimistic about something like this, but at the same time you don’t want to count your Coca-Cola‘s announcement that it is chickens before they hatch.” The beverage company said in its releasing a cane sugar-based version of its primary soda — made with Ameri- quarterly earnings report Tuesday that can sugar — has Louisiana sugar cane an offering with U.S. cane sugar would farmers excited, but not yet making soon be available to American consumplans to expand. ers. The move has generated signifi“We’ve heard good things come and cant conversation online — including go before with no results,” said Tra- from President Donald Trump, who vis Medine, who farms 3,500 acres of said in a Truth Social post last week sugar cane between Iberville and West that he had spoken with the company Baton Rouge Parish along with his dad about a cane sugar option of the signa-
Staff writer
BREAKING A SWEAT
As Saints training camp opens in the sweltering heat of New Orleans, coaches and doctors offer tips and tricks on how to stay cool BY EMILY WOODRUFF Staff writer
The New Orleans Saints opened training camp Wednesday in Metairie, preparing for a season that will largely transpire inside the climate-controlled Caesars Superdome. But first, they have to endure playing in a different kind of dome.
WEATHER HIGH 91 LOW 76 PAGE 6B
ä Saints open training camp under new coach Kellen Moore.
to the Northeast. In Louisiana, that dome is helping to drive heat index values as high as 114 degrees, PAGE 1C with the National Weather Service warning that heat illness “can ocA massive heat dome — a high- cur quickly” without precautions. pressure system that traps hot air Louisiana recorded 51 heatnear the ground — has settled over related deaths last year and 88 in much of the United States, pushing 2023, according to the Louisiana temperatures into dangerous terriä See SWEAT, page 4A tory from Texas and the Midwest
Business ......................6A Commentary ................5B Nation-World ................2A Classified .....................6D Deaths .........................3B Opinion ........................4B Comics-Puzzles .....3D-5D Living............................1D Sports ..........................1C
Sweat flies off Saints quarterback Tyler Shough as he throws during the first day of training camp on Wednesday in Metairie. STAFF PHOTO By DAVID GRUNFELD
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