SEC COACHES SAY DAYS OF UNDEFEATED CHAMPS ENDANGERED 1C
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BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA
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W e d n e s d ay, M ay 28, 2025
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House OKs Landry-backed insurance bill Opponents say measure will drive insurers out of the state BY TYLER BRIDGES Staff writer
Over the strong objections of Insurance Commissioner Tim Temple and the insurance industry, the House deferred to Gov. Jeff Landry and gave final passage to a bill Tuesday that he says will make it harder for insurance companies to raise rates. Temple objects because he says the measure, House Bill 148, will allow the insurance commissioner to reject rate increases without justification. That, he adds, will discourage companies from investing in Louisiana, and the
Gov. Jeff Landry says legislation passed Tuesday by the House will make it harder for companies to raise car insurance rates.
2025 LEGISLATURE
quire insurance companies to reveal rate-setting information that has been secret. National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies, which represents ä Legislature approves bill to ban 38% of the insurance market share in Louisiana, wrote in a letter to the kratom. PAGE 6A governor Tuesday that the provision is so bad that it will outweigh any of reduction in competition will make it the measures passed this year and last harder to keep rates down — the op- year by Landry and legislators that they said would hold down property posite of what Landry says. Allstate and State Farm officials met and car insurance rates. The bill is “likely to decrease privately with the governor to express their opposition to a provision added ä See INSURANCE, page 6A in the Senate late May 21 that will re-
School food legislation advances
STAFF FILE PHOTO By HILARy SCHEINUK
WBR teen guilty in deadly shooting 2023 incident caused chaos at high school football game BY MATT BRUCE Staff writer
chasing American agricultural products for school meals, which it says would bolster the economy and give students access to fresher food. The effort to get more local produce into schools could be complicated by recent cuts by the Trump administration to U.S. Department of Agriculture programs that help food banks and schools purchase food from local farmers. Related bills include Senate Bill 117 by Sen. Blake Miguez, R-New Iberia, which seeks to ban “ultra-processed” foods from school breakfasts and lunches, and
It happened in seconds. As fans enjoyed Port Allen and Brusly’s annual rivalry game in September 2023, a fight broke out just off the football field. Jarrettin Ranaud Jackson II said one of his friends and another teen exchanged words, then they began fighting just feet from him. He stood there for a second watching the altercation before noticing two figures in his periphery charging toward him, Jackson testified in court Friday. He told the West Baton Rouge jury that he pulled out his modified Glock pistol and pointed it at the attackers to defend himself. He said someone hit his right hand as he aimed the pistol, which was outfitted with a “switch” device that converts small-caliber pistols into fully automatic, rapid-fire guns. That bump caused the gun to discharge and fire three rounds, he said. Prosecutors called the claim “outrageous” and told jurors Jackson’s testimony was unreliable, “self-serving” and uncorroborated by any credible sources. Ja’Kobe Queen, a 16-year-old Brusly boy, died after being shot in the neck and face. Brasia Davis, a Port Allen woman, was also wounded during the shooting, which shut down the annual game abruptly and sent hundreds of spectators rushing out of Port Allen High School’s football stadium in a frantic stampede.
ä See FOOD, page 4A
ä See GUILTY, page 4A
STAFF PHOTO By LESLIE WESTBROOK
Among the bills being considered by the Legislature are proposals meant to eventually prohibit public schools and private schools that receive public funding from serving or selling highly processed food and drinks.
State’s effort aligns with U.S. health secretary’s agenda BY ELYSE CARMOSINO Staff writer
Louisiana lawmakers want schools to serve more locally made, nutritious meals and get rid of highly processed products, as they join the Trump administration in pushing for healthier food options. An assortment of bills and resolutions making their way through the state Legislature aim to reshape Louisiana food policies to align with U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s “Make America Healthy Again” agenda, which seeks to reduce chronic illness and obesity. Among the legislation are propos-
als meant to eventually prohibit public schools and private schools that receive public funding from serving or selling highly processed food and drinks. The state House of Representatives on Thursday passed two resolutions by Rep. Michael Echols, R-Monroe, focused on school meals. One calls on the state education department to study the potential costs of banning certain artificial ingredients and additives from school foods and drinks, including some food dyes, and report back with their findings ahead of next year’s legislative session. The other resolution calls on Congress to support giving schools funding to prioritize pur-
Nuclear plant shutdown timing raises questions about blackout BY SAM KARLIN
Regulators had previously pinned the outages, in part, on the unexpected shutdown of River Elected officials homed in Tues- Bend, a nuclear plant north of Baday on the timeline of events that ton Rouge. But Entergy and federled to an abrupt order of forced al officials said Tuesday that River blackouts on Sunday in Louisiana, Bend was shut down because of a prompting Entergy and Cleco to leak on May 21. That left the grid cut the lights to 100,000 residents operator, the Midcontinent Indein the New Orleans area amid hot, pendent System Operator, with late-spring temperatures. several days to plan for the lower Staff writer
WEATHER HIGH 88 LOW 70 PAGE 8B
supply of electricity. The timing has raised more questions about why Louisiana was forced into a “load shed” event that caused widespread outages well before peak summer demand for electricity. Officials are asking Entergy and MISO officials to answer questions publicly about what happened next Tuesday at a City Council meeting
and at a Public Service Commission hearing next month, in a bid to figure out how the looming power deficit was not caught earlier. Entergy is also expected to face questions about its long-standing lack of transmission in south Louisiana that has created “load pockets” where it’s difficult to import power. The River Bend nuclear plant shut down May 21 after operators
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noticed a leak, which they identified two days later as the result of a faulty valve in the reactor’s cooling system, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Entergy fixed the valve over the weekend before bringing the plant back online Monday. The plant did not unexpectedly
ä See BLACKOUT, page 7A
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