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BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA
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S u n d ay, O c t O b e r 5, 2025
“I absolutely love the job I have. It’s a more impactful one.” LOUISIANA ATTORNEy GENERAL LIZ MURRILL
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Schools compiling upgrade wish lists
Baton Rouge plans $40M bond sale to enhance ‘the high school experience’ BY CHARLES LUSSIER | Staff writer
STAFF PHOTO By SOPHIA GERMER
As Louisiana’s attorney general, Liz Murrill has thrust the state into the center of national debates about abortion, transgender athletes and redistricting.
‘She has not backed down’
Supreme Court case shows Louisiana attorney general’s aggressive, high-profile approach BY TYLER BRIDGES | Staff writer During her 20 months as attorney general, Liz Murrill has driven Louisiana into the center of some of the country’s fiercest political debates. After the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, she joined 16 other Republican attorneys general in warning universities not to impose a “tax on free speech” by charging student organizations higher security fees. She is trying to extradite a New York doctor criminally charged with violating Louisiana laws by mailing abortion pills to the state. She sued the Biden administration to block a rule that allows transgender girls to use girls’ bathrooms and participate in sports as girls.
And now Murrill, 61, is stepping into perhaps the biggest legal fight in years involving race by asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a key part of the decades-old Voting Rights Act. If successful, the move could force either U.S. Rep. Cleo Fields or U.S. Rep. Troy Carter — both Black Democrats — out of Congress, to be replaced by a Republican. By aggressively pursuing high-profile conservative causes as attorney general, Murrill has been following a playbook established over the previous eight years by her Republican predecessor, Jeff Landry. During that time, Murrill was one of Landry’s top lawyers.
ä See MURRILL, page 14A
With the prospect of $40 million from an anticipated bond sale, public high school principals across Baton Rouge are submitting wish lists of projects that could enhance “the high school experience.” “It’s not willy-nilly,” said East Baton Rouge Parish Superintendent LaMont Cole. “They do have a process in place. They are going through that process currently.” Cole began pressing for a $40 million bond sale in August as a way to upgrade high schools in the capital city that the superintendent says have fallen behind their peers. He is defin- Cole ing the areas that fall under the “high school experience” as athletics, student clubs, fine arts and career and technical education programs. The idea grew out of complaints Cole said he heard throughout his first year as superintendent, often from students, that high schools fell short in what was available outside core classes. Cole has offered several possible examples of things he’s seen and heard that could be improved: substandard athletic turf, stages without curtains, antiquated lighting systems in auditoriums, substandard science labs, old weight rooms and rundown press boxes. Cole explained his plans to the parish School Board on Thursday. At the outset, Cole said he asked high school leaders to provide him with student participation data for all the areas he had outlined. Next, he asked the leaders to identify the specific areas that needed work, as well as any necessary materials and support. Then he gave the leaders a scorecard which “they can use to assess their needs and grade what they are asking for.” The schools are to submit their final wish lists by Oct. 10. “We have a team we are putting together to
ä See SCHOOLS, page 19A
Tech experiment hopes to improve Louisiana’s byways
top of state and local leaders’ past year. roughness sensor and GPS. Parishes using AI to scan, report road conditions the agendas. Now, a handful of LouiGoodRoads is described as a The device is attached to a vehi-
BY CLAIRE GRUNEWALD | Staff writer As artificial intelligence becomes more ingrained in aspects of everyday life, some parishes are exploring whether it can be used to help address one of Louisiana’s
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biggest issues: roads. Louisiana’s road conditions have consistently been ranked among the poorest in the country due to factors such as deterioration and poor maintenance. Improving roads is commonly at
siana parishes have been experimenting with technology that uses AI in hopes of improving conditions in a more efficient way. The program GoodRoads has now worked on six projects in the state in Livingston, Iberville, St. James and Allen parishes in the
software and hardware solution to help governments responsible for road maintenance make better, faster decisions. Founder and civil engineer Chris Sunde, of North Carolina, said his company sends cities and parishes the device with a camera, a
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cle and then driven around to scan the roads in a specific area. After the scanning process, the company uses a large language model to inspect the roads and assign them to a pavement condition
ä See BYWAYS, page 19A
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