Tagged: politics

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Gov. Bobby Jindal's legislative package takes strong measures against convicted sex offenders. A handful of bills targeting sex offenders are making steady progress through the Legislature, including the state's attempt to keep sex criminals from social networking websites. 

BATON ROUGE, La. — A bloc of conservative Republicans in the House couldn't stall a budget bill that taps into one-time dollars to help piece together spending plans year after year.

The House voted 63-38 Thursday to send the bill to the Senate, raising questions about whether the coalition was fracturing and would be unable to hold together in negotiating a final version of next year's $25 billion operating budget with the Senate.

A proposal that might make it easier for black candidates to win posts on New Orleans' City Council now has the support of all current council members.

The council president and vice president made that announcement Wednesday evening.

The only two African-American members of the 7-member council have stayed away from recent meetings after the council deadlocked on the issue earlier this month.

There was already one vacancy on the council, so the apparent boycott by Jon Johnson and Cynthia Hedge-Morrell made it impossible to get the quorum needed to conduct business.