Free Republic

New Orleans has become the first city in the US to use artificial intelligence to answer emergency 911 calls — but critics warn it could have deadly consequences. The Orleans Parish Communication District — which gets over a thousand emergency dials a day, in what is among the highest volume of calls in the country — is routing the 911 calls to an AI agent that decides which ones get bumped to human dispatchers and which get handled by the bot itself, according to the Shreveport Times. “I was a 911 dispatcher for 11 years and this is the worst...

Congress on Thursday split on advancing a pair of war powers resolutions aimed at forcing President Donald Trump to abandon his war with Iran, as the conflict escalates into a deadly new phase and oil tops $100 a barrel. The moves were the first vote since Trump informed Congress that he restarted the war with Iran following the breakdown of peace negotiations. The conflict’s revival after weeks of a shaky ceasefire comes just months before the U.S. midterm elections. It threatens to scramble the majority Republicans’ plan to maintain their razor-thin majorities. The Senate on Thursday voted 47-49 to kill...

Rep. Cleo Fields (D-La.) has announced he will not seek reelection, choosing instead to run for state Senate in the wake of the Supreme Court’s ruling gutting the Voting Rights Act. In a statement late Tuesday afternoon, Fields said he came to the decision after “a great deal of prayer and reflection.” “I feel my calling to serve the people is better put to use back home than here in D.C., and I intend to answer that call,” said Fields, whose majority-Black district encompasses parts of Shreveport, Baton Rouge and Lafayette. Fields’ announcement comes after the Louisiana state legislature in...

Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) pressed Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth in a testy exchange on Iran and the state of the Strait of Hormuz. At a Tuesday Senate hearing, Kennedy questioned both Hegseth and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. John D. Caine on the Strait as tensions have escalated between the United States and Iran with the U.S. launching days of strikes and Iran continuing to target ships in the Strait. “Will they put tolls on the Strait?” Kennedy asked Caine. “I don’t know, sir. That’s a decision that’s a hypothetical and will depend on what happens in the...

Mitsubishi Corp. finalized a $7.5 billion acquisition of Dallas-based Aethon Energy Management’s Haynesville Shale assets this week, as another Japanese conglomerate moved to secure natural gas from northwest Louisiana for its LNG supply chain. Tokyo-based Mitsubishi is the latest Japanese multinational energy company to buy production in north Louisiana following JERA’s February close on a $1.5 billion purchase of the South Mansfield gas field and supporting infrastructure from Williams and GeoSouthern Energy affiliates, both U.S.-based companies. Taken together, Japanese multinationals will produce an estimated 4.5 billion cubic feet per day or about 30%-35% of the Haynesville region’s total natural gas...

BATON ROUGE - The former head of Impact Charter School, her family members and an independent contractor were indicted by a federal grand jury on Thursday in connection with the embezzlement of school funds. The school's previous CEO Chakesha Scott, her husband Eric Scott, their daughter Courtney Scott and contractor Sam Green were named in a criminal indictment filed in the Middle District of Louisiana. The four are accused of conspiring with one another to use school funds for personal use and creating false documents to make the payments appear as business expenses, a scheme that allegedly spanned from 2018...

In ruby-red Louisiana, a disturbing power play exposed how far a rusting Democratic machine will reach to undermine lawful state government. From the isolated blue stronghold of Orleans Parish, which is New Orleans itself, local officials defied the state legislature. They basically claimed home rule trumped all, then indicted Attorney General Liz Murrill, a Republican, for the “crime” of enforcing Louisiana law. This was no routine dispute. It was illegal retaliation from a shrinking political island desperate to reclaim influence it lost at the ballot box. The situation is wheels within wheels. Within wheels. Orleans Parish long maintained separate civil...

A quiet Louisiana parish is set to become home to the world's largest data center, stirring unease among residents. Tech giant Meta announced Monday it is expanding its massive Hyperion data center in Richland Parish to five gigawatts of computing power, increasing its investment in the project to $50 billion. Local leaders hailed the project, saying it has already boosted the economy and created hundreds of jobs despite still being under construction. Governor Jeff Landry said the data center construction has ignited 'economic progress' the state has never seen before. 'It's going to create 7,500 construction jobs, more than 1,000...

A local pastor has filed a lawsuit claiming Baton Rouge’s library system unlawfully fired him after he refused to use someone’s preferred gender pronouns. The Rev. Luke Ash filed the suit Thursday alleging that the East Baton Rouge Parish Library terminated his employment a year ago because of his religious beliefs, which Ash said prevented him from using a co-worker’s preferred gender pronouns. He is also the lead pastor at Stevendale Baptist Church in Baton Rouge, per the church’s website. Ash is represented by Liberty Counsel, a Christian civil liberties law firm, and said the library’s inclusivity policy violated his...

Jasmine Crockett, the race-hustling Congresswoman who lost her Texas Senate bid to Democrat James Talarico, revealed the real reason she lost the race during a black culture festival over the weekend. At a panel discussion during the Essence Festival in New Orleans on the Fourth of July, Crockett appeared alongside Rep. LaMonica McIver (NJ-10) and Louisiana State Senator Royce Duplessis. At one point, Crockett went off on her own party and "racist" Republicans for ignoring black people, saying, "I believe that we need to make demands." "It is not enough just to be that you're not the racist Republican but...

An arrest warrant for Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill was issued Thursday, minutes after a 16-count felony indictment was handed down in New Orleans Criminal District Court. The Republican state official’s bond totals $400,000, records show, which include $25,000 for each felony charge. Murrill is accused of eight counts of malfeasance in office and eight counts of intimidation. A New Orleans grand jury reviewed evidence this week about whether Murrill sought to intimidate local New Orleans public officials, including Mayor Helena Moreno and District Attorney Jason Williams, sources said. Murrill told the officials in May that they had imperiled their...

A band of conservative hardliners on Tuesday blocked a procedural rule that would have teed up debate and final votes on a slate of legislation, dealing a blow to Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) as he aimed to advance the annual defense authorization bill this week. The lower chamber voted 198-224 to reject the rule, with 14 Republicans joining Democrats in opposing the measure due to objections about the SAVE America Act, the priorities of the House, and a niche pension issue. GOP Reps. Tim Burchett (Tenn.), Eric Burlison (Mo.), Eli Crane (Ariz.), Randy Fine (Fla.), Andy Harris (Md.), Anna Paulina...

US Senate race between Julia Letlow and John Fleming

President Donald Trump clashed with Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy in a meeting with Republican senators on Wednesday, multiple sources told ABC News, over the war powers resolution passed Tuesday in the Senate -- a rare rebuke of Trump that saw with four Republicans voting with Democrats.Multiple sources described the clash between Trump and Cassidy as a shouting match. Senate Majority Leader John Thune tried to intervene to de-escalate the situation and other senators tried to jump in to ease tensions over the resolution, which aims to limit Trump's ability to wage war in Iran but does not have the force...

A study found that videos promoting misinformation about sunscreen got more engagement on the platform, despite making up a fraction of the most popular posts on the topic. Sunscreen videos are all over TikTok — but the ones that go the most viral are the ones that are packed with misinformation, a study published Thursday in the journal PLOS Digital Health found. Researchers from the University of Alberta in Canada analyzed TikTok videos with the highest views across the five most popular sunscreen-related hashtags. Although the vast majority — 87% of the nearly 1,000 videos — promoted sunscreen use, the...

Rapper Mystikal — best known for his 2000 hit “Shake Ya Ass” — has been sentenced to two decades behind bars over a 2022 rape case. According to ABC affiliate WBRZ, the Louisiana hitmaker was handed down a 20-year sentence on Tuesday for third-degree rape. Per the outlet, the rapper, whose given name is Michael Lawrence Tyler, responded in court Tuesday after the victim requested the maximum sentence. “If I did that to you, I deserve the max sentence,” he said. The Grammy-nominated rapper pled guilty in March in an Ascension Parish, Louisiana court — though on Friday, ahead of...

A baby born at just 23 weeks gestation is in the hospital indefinitely after the infant’s grandfather allegedly slipped his teenage daughter an abortion pill that sickened her and resulted in an emergency caesarean section. The alleged perpetrator, 39 year-old Jamelle Kelly, faces two felony charges, attempted first-degree feticide and domestic abuse/battery of a pregnant victim, after the Carencro Police Department determined he poisoned his 17 year-old with abortion pills that sent her to the hospital. Louisiana prohibits both surgical and chemical abortions and classifies mifepristone, the most popular abortion pill on the market, as a controlled dangerous substance. The...

An alligator was handed a joke award by a Louisiana sheriff after attacking a man suspected of driving while impaired after he tried to escape across a swamp. The unnamed reptile was given a 'deputy of the year' prize by St. Charles Parish Sheriff's Office after the attack on Victor Rivas, 40, on June 7. Rivas was spotted driving a Toyota recklessly along Interstate 10, the sheriff's office said. The car had a blown tire and sustained damage from a collision with a concrete barrier. Louisiana State Troopers conducted a traffic stop on Interstate 310 and reported that Rivas, of...

Is your business "needed"? Bizarrely, in many states, if you want to start a business, you first must convince bureaucrats that your business is "needed." Four years ago, Louisiana blocked social worker Ursula Newell-Davis from helping kids with special needs. Bureaucrats said she hadn't proved her business was needed. "Why does the state of Louisiana have the right to stop me from doing what I love?" she asks in this update video. Good question. Newell-Davis has a master's degree and a social work license. For two decades, she's helped kids with special needs. One, Kamal, told us he struggled to...

The D.C. establishment is showing its true colors in their latest swampy move. Senate Republicans are considering adding eligibility restrictions to the new “Anti-Weaponization Fund” as part of the ongoing reconciliation bill process. As part of the settlement agreement in “President Donald J. Trump v. Internal Revenue Service,” the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the formation of “The Anti-Weaponization Fund,” funding it with approximately $1.776 billion from the federal Judgment Fund. This agreement was formed in place of Trump or his family receiving any of the $10 billion in restitution they sought through the original lawsuit. FLASH: DOJ expands...