IBERVILLE DEPUTY KILLED, ANOTHER WOUNDED IN SHOOTING 1B
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BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA
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T u e s d ay, O c T O b e r 7, 2025
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Shutdown threatens insurance subsidies La. residents’ health care costs could increase significantly
BY EMILY WOODRUFF Staff writer
STAFF FILE PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON
Solar farms are part of the ‘energy transition’ that some officials and business leaders say has arrived in Louisiana.
LSU considers creating energy extension service
Unbiased mediator would be science-based information source
The federal government shut down last week, and at the heart of the standoff is a fight over the health insurance subsidies that keep coverage affordable for hundreds of “There’s no real thousands of Louisianans. These enhanced premium other option at tax credits lower the month- that point. If you ly cost of health insurance can’t afford the for people who buy coverage through the Affordable premium on the exchange, you Care Act marketplace. The enhanced subsidies were probably then first introduced during the just become pandemic under the Ameriuninsured.” can Rescue Plan Act and later extended through 2025. KEVIN CALLISON, They allow some low-income Tulane University enrollees to pay no monthly health care premiums and cap costs for economist middle-income households at 8.5% of their income. If the subsidies expire at the end of the year, Louisiana would be hit harder than any other state, according to a new analysis from the Urban Institute. The state is projected to see the steepest decline in subsidized marketplace enrollment nationwide — a 61% drop,
ä See SHUTDOWN, page 7A
BY DAVID J. MITCHELL Staff writer
Pumping and permanently storing carbon dioxide under vast stretches of Louisiana forest and farmland has triggered grassroots opposition, as the reality of more than 30 such proposed projects has taken hold over the past two years. Companies proposing to convert hundreds to thousands of acres of farmland into solar farms have faced similar opposition from pockets of rural Louisiana, including in the state’s sugar cane growing regions. The “energy transition” that some officials and business leaders say has arrived in Louisiana is bringing uncomfortable change and conflict to a state with nearly 125 years of history with oil and gas. During a recent energy symposium, a top LSU executive floated the concept of having the state’s flagship university create a new cooperative extension service that could serve as an unbiased mediator and science-based information source on energy. The concept, however, may step into a potentially sensitive area for LSU, with some having previously raised concerns over whether
New judge could oversee trial in 2023 rape case BY MATT BRUCE Staff writer
ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO
Proposed carbon-capture projects that would store carbon dioxide underground have triggered grassroots opposition in the state. the university has too close a relationship with the carbon capture and energy industries. The model, according to the LSU executive, Robert Twilley, could be the LSU AgCenter’s and LSU Sea Grant’s decades-old cooperative extension services. The AgCenter includes the popular Louisiana Master
Gardener Program. Twilley, LSU vice president for research and economic development who formerly led the Sea Grant program, said creating a cooperative extension for energy would match a trend happening in some other
ä See LSU, page 5A
Casey John Carver is set to become the first of three men tried for rape in the high-profile Madison Brooks case later this year, and a new judge could be assigned to determine his guilt or innocence. District Judge Gail Horne Ray has presided over Carver’s case since he was indicted on first- and third-degree rape charges in May 2023. She’s made several pivotal Brooks pretrial decisions over the past two years. State prosecutors sought to have Ray recused from the case last month. Because their motion
ä See JUDGE, page 7A
5th Circuit will reconsider state’s 10 Commandments law Partial court had struck it down
BY PATRICK WALL Staff writer
A federal appeals court on Monday vacated an earlier ruling that struck down Louisiana’s controversial law requiring public schools and colleges to post the Ten Commandments in classrooms, setting the stage for a new round of arguments in the high-stakes case.
WEATHER HIGH 90 LOW 71 PAGE 6B
In June, a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the law is “plainly unconstitutional” and cannot be enforced. But in a Monday evening order, the court agreed to a request by Louisiana for the full 5th Circuit to rehear the case, nullifying the earlier ruling. The decision by a majority of judges on the court to reconsider the case could lead to a very different outcome than the panel’s ruling. Two of the three judges on the panel were appointed by Democrats, while 12 of 17 active judges
on the full court were appointed by Republicans, with six selected by President Donald Trump. The full 5th Circuit is widely considered the country’s most conservative federal court of appeals. In the meantime, a U.S. District Court’s preliminary injunction will stand, barring the state from enforcing the law. The Ten Commandments case has been closely watched as a test of the traditional divide between church and state, and legal observers say
STAFF FILE PHOTO By HILARy SCHEINUK
Attorney General Liz Murrill speaks alongside Gov. Jeff Landry during a ä See LAW, page 7A news conference in 2024 regarding the Ten Commandments in schools.
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101ST yEAR, NO. 99