Free Republic

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal has once again vetoed a bill that would set up a legal framework for surrogacy births in the state, saying the legislation "still raises concerns for many in the pro-life community." "Despite the good intentions and hard efforts of the author, this legislation still raises concerns for many in the pro-life community," Jindal wrote in his veto message Saturday. "Thus, I cannot in good conscience, sign this bill." Contracts governing surrogacy are not enforceable in the state's courts, but the legislation would allow couples and a woman to enter into a contractual surrogacy birth relationship. The...

Fox News’ Sean Hannity sat down with Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal on Thursday at the Republican Leadership Conference to talk about the accomplishments conservative governors have made across the U.S. “All of you inherited deficits you turned into surpluses, high unemployment now low unemployment,” Hannity said of Jindal and Govs. Rick Scott (FL), Rick Perry (TX), John Kasich (OH), Scott Walker (WI), and Nikki Haley (SC). “What can the Republicans in Washington learn?” Washington can actually learn a lot from states if they want to—it’s just common sense, Jindal replied. Lawmakers inside the beltway always talk about the things...

In fact, when it comes to primaries, the tea party-aligned Trump sounds a whole lot like GOP establishment leaders -- calling for pragmatism over purity -- rather than tea party groups. ...Maness is in the single digits while Rep. Bill Cassidy polls as the GOP frontrunner against Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.). "The Republicans have to win," Trump said. "I’m a very conservative person, but Republicans have to win."

On Thursday in New Orleans, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin hailed conservative Louisiana Senate candidate and Retired Air Force Colonel Rob Maness as an outsider who will give Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Mike Lee (R-UT) the help they need to fight the permanent political establishment in Washington, D.C. At an event with the Tea Party Express, which endorsed Maness this week, Palin, who often backs underfunded candidates if she believes they will be the best person for the job in D.C., said Maness would be the "reinforcement" that conservatives in D.C. need. In a Facebook post after the event,...

The 3 day 2014 Republican Leadership Comittee started in New Orleans today. Schedule: THURS 5/29 12pm - Reg & Exh Hall Open 5pm - Rep Women Welcome Rally honoring Kathy Brugger 6pm - Gen Session Kathy Brugger Reince Priebus Bobby Jindal Ron Johnson 6:30pm - Reg & Exh Hall Close 8pm - Gen Session End

[SNIP]...With the start of the next school year, the Recovery School District will be the first in the country made up completely of public charter schools, a milestone for New Orleans and a grand experiment in urban education for the nation.

new orleans — The second-graders paraded to the Dumpster in the rear parking lot, where they chucked boxes of old work sheets, notebooks and other detritus into the trash, emptying their school for good. Benjamin Banneker Elementary closed Wednesday as New Orleans’s Recovery School District permanently shuttered its last five traditional public schools this week. With the start of the next school year, the Recovery School District will be the first in the country made up completely of public charter schools, a milestone for New Orleans and a grand experiment in urban education for the nation. *** By most indicators,...

BATON ROUGE, LA, May 27, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Abortion providers will no longer be permitted to distribute sex education material in Louisiana's public schools, once Gov. Bobby Jindal signs a bill that passed the state Senate today. Senators approved H.B. 305, which bars any employee of an abortion facility or its affiliates from speaking about “human sexuality or family planning,” by a 31-5 vote. It passed the state House 91-6 on April 16; all six no votes were Democrats. The bill, which applies to both public and charter schools, now goes to Gov. Jindal, who has promised to sign it...

A measure that would allow legislators to carry concealed weapons in all public buildings except the Louisiana Capitol is nearing final passage after receiving House approval on Tuesday. The House voted 79-12 to back the bill by Franklin Sen. Bret Allain, a Republican who argues lawmakers need the privilege because they often face threats of violence. Under the bill, lawmakers would be exempt from a law barring concealed weapons in most public buildings.

The Republican Leadership Conference has announced their speakers for this weekend's conference in New Orleans, LA and the list includes reality television star Phil Robertson and Donald Trump.

Start with exotic Nazi technology, take a detour with South African apartheidists, and add a bit role for Iranian imams. What you have is—what else? —one of the most improbable and important American business stories of the past decade. It's the tale of a company called Sasol, the former South African state oil company, which is embarking on what could be the single-largest foreign investment project in U.S. history. Sasol is building a 3,034-acre energy complex near a bayou in Lake Charles, La. Tapping into cheap, fracked natural gas as well as the pipeline and shipping infrastructure along the Gulf...

Former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin will have to pay the government more than $501,000 as a result of his conviction on bribery and other charges, a federal judge said Tuesday. Nagin was convicted in February on 20 counts including bribery, fraud, money laundering and conspiracy during his two terms as mayor. The Democrat served from 2002 to 2010 and was known his impassioned pleas for help for the city after Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005. …

Covington police are looking for two junior high school-aged boys who attacked a juvenile Friday (May 23) afternoon as he was walking home from the library. One of boys approached the victim from behind and punched him in the face, breaking his jaw, Chief Tim Lentz said. The suspects approached the victim when he was walking home from the library at 1:30 p.m. near the intersection of West 27th Avenue and North Pierce Street. The victim did not know the suspects, and Lentz said they did not communicate.

Stepping up his criticism, Gov. Bobby Jindal on Wednesday compared Common Core to centralized planning in Russia and predicted the national drive to overhaul academic standards will fail. “The feds are taking over and rushing this,” Jindal said in a prepared statement released late Wednesday. “Let’s face it: centralized planning didn’t work in Russia, it’s not working with our health care system and it won’t work in education,” the governor said. “Education is best left to local control.” The statement represents the latest, and perhaps most pointed, comments that Jindal has made about Common Core, which represents new standards in...

The woman, a petite blonde dressed in a black pantsuit and purple blouse, appeared nervous when addressing the jurors, speaking quietly and quickly, often clenching her hands in her lap.The woman then walked the jurors through graphic details of the assault, when she says multiple men raped her repeatedly. After the incident, the woman told police she guessed there were 5 to 8 men, but she could not recall how many exactly assaulted her. "It all happened so fast," she recalled.

It’s only a small matter of time until the Obama administration finally, rapturously releases what its hopes will be the crown jewel of its rise-of-the-oceans-slowing climate-change agenda: Regulations capping the emissions from existing power plants, a.k.a., stamping out coal plants across the country. This set of regs is going to be even more complicated and controversial than the regulations for only new power plants the administration released last year, and as the AP obliquely explains, we’re likely to start seeing those “necessarily skyrocketing” energy prices Obama once mentioned pretty quickly here: Electricity prices are probably on their way up...

In a longtime battle, Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) has sent a letter to President Obama’s Chief of Staff, Denis McDonough, asking McDonough to get Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) to stop blocking legislation that would authorize 27 Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Community Based Outpatient Clinics (CBOC), including clinics in Lafayette and Lake Charles La. Meanwhile, on the other side of the Louisiana Senate aisle, Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) has signed off on a letter led by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell demanding that the Washington Redskins change their name, calling the teams’ name...

BATON ROUGE, LA, May 22, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) -- A pro-life bill that could close three of Louisiana’s five abortion facilities is expected to become law next week once it receives the signature of Gov. Bobby Jindal. HB 388, which requires all abortion clinic doctors to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of a clinic, received overwhelming bipartisan support. Introduced by Rep. Katrina Jackson, a Democrat, it passed the state House by a vote of 88-5 on Wednesday. It passed the state Senate on May 14 by a margin of 34-3.

A collection of seven Senate Democrats are pressuring President Obama to scale-back the proposed carbon limits on new coal-fired power plants. In a letter to Obama on Wednesday, the senators asserted that the technology the rule is based on is not commercially viable. ADVERTISEMENT "We are committed to improving air quality; however, the emissions standards in the proposed rule are not based on technology that has been adequately demonstrated on a commercial scale," the letter, spearheaded by Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.) and Joe Donnelly (Ind.) states. Sens. Mary Landrieu (La.), Mark Pryor (Ark.) and Mark Warner (Va.), all vulnerable Democrats...

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who survived a recall in 2012 largely due to the tea party, said Sunday that the tea party movement should target Democrats, not Republicans. "The answer is not to take it out on House Republicans in primaries, it's to go to Louisiana, Arkansas and North Carolina," the Republican governor said on CNN's "State of the Union," referring to Senate Democrats who are facing tough reelection campaigns in red states. Walker offered his assessment in the wake of House Speaker John Boehner's recent criticism of some conservative outside groups.