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TexasTowelie's JournalMarijuana legalization in Louisiana gets boost from public support: 'The tide is changing'
Republican state Rep. Scott McKnight, a conservative 40-year-old Baton Rouge businessman, was torn over the proposal in the Louisiana Legislature to legalize marijuana for recreational use.
A former reserve deputy in East Baton Rouge Parish, he knew law enforcement has concerns with the idea. But one thing that helped sway McKnight to vote for the bill – making him one of three Republicans to send the proposal out of committee and on to the full House for debate in a historic vote – was public opinion.
"I have not received a negative email or call. I have received a good bit of positive emails," McKnight said. “The tide is changing on this.”
Several polls done this year on the question of legalizing marijuana underscore that truth, and they have given the longshot movement surprising strength. Some lawmakers on the fence have pointed to the fact they have only received positive messages from constituents on the issue. Several pollsters said they expect that drumbeat of support to only get louder in the coming years as Louisiana catches up with the rest of the nation, which overwhelmingly backs legalization.
Read more: https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/politics/legislature/article_82eda1ba-aa87-11eb-a474-cb426f591f93.html
Federal grand jury returns indictment against former Shreveport police officer
A former Shreveport Police Department officer has been indicted on an assault charge.
Dylan Hudson, 34, was charged with assaulting an arrestee in Caddo Parish in August of 2019.
Acting United States Attorney Alexander C. Van Hook, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Pamela S. Karlan of the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, and FBI New Orleans Acting Special Agent in Charge Daniel R. Genck, announced that a federal grand jury in Shreveport had returned an indictment on Hudson.
The indictment charges Hudson with willfully depriving an individual of his right to be free from the use of unreasonable force during an arrest.
On Aug. 5, 2019, Hudson allegedly used unreasonable force while acting in his official capacity as a Shreveport police officer. Hudson allegedly used unreasonable force against an arrestee by punching him in the face and head, kneeing him in the stomach, tasing him in the neck and head, pistol-whipping him in the head, slamming his head into the ground, and kicking him in the face.
Read more: https://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/news/crime/2021/04/29/federal-grand-jury-indicts-ex-shreveport-police-officer-dylan-hudson/7404193002/
President Biden to visit Louisiana to pitch infrastructure plan, state Republicans resist
Joe Biden has scheduled his first trip to Louisiana as president, planning to visit Lake Charles and New Orleans Thursday as part of an ongoing whistlestop tour to sell his $2.25 trillion infrastructure plan to Congress and the American public.
The White House hasn't yet released details of the trip.
Louisiana's crumbling infrastructure is among the worst in the nation. The American Society of Civil Engineers gave the state's infrastructure a D+ grade in its 2021 report card.
"The conclusion is not a surprise but more an alarm that over the course of the last five years, (Louisiana's infrastructure) has detreated further," the engineers said in their report care. "Our infrastructure is poorly maintained, inadequately funded and not designed to meet tomorrow’s demands. Consequently, the state is at a disadvantage and will continue to lose its economic competitiveness."
Read more: https://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/news/2021/05/01/president-biden-plans-trip-louisiana-infrastructure-plan/4905085001/
In suit over legal fees, attorneys ask to invalidate agreement between Cantrell and Edward Wisner
In suit over legal fees, attorneys ask to invalidate agreement between Cantrell and Edward Wisner trustA group of Louisiana law firms filed a lawsuit last week against the Edward Wisner Donation, a lucrative land trust controlled in part by the city of New Orleans. The suit primarily seeks to resolve a longstanding dispute over legal fees, but the firms are also asking a judge to undo a potentially costly agreement inked last year between New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell and other Wisner Donation beneficiaries.
As The Lens previously reported, Cantrell agreed last year to continue the century-old trust — which was meant to terminate and transfer to full city control seven years ago — in perpetuity. Had the trust terminated, the city could have taken sole ownership of about 50,000 acres of land, along with millions of dollars in lease payments that land generates every year.
But under the 2020 deal, the city will continue to split control of the land and the lease revenue with several other beneficiaries, including a group of heirs to the trust’s namesake: philanthropist Edward Wisner, who donated the land and established the trust in 1914.
The Cantrell administration did not explain why it agreed to the deal when approached by The Lens late last year, and there are questions about its legality. A spokesman for Mayor LaToya Cantrell declined to comment for this story.
Read more: https://thelensnola.org/2021/04/28/in-suit-over-legal-fees-attorneys-ask-to-invalidate-agreement-between-cantrell-and-edward-wisner-trust/
Trucking firm's loan of $700M from U.S. 'a mistake,' Hill says
WASHINGTON -- A Kansas trucking company received a $700 million federal loan after what appear to be "missteps" by the Treasury Department and the Department of Defense, the Congressional Oversight Commission said in a report released Friday.
Commissioners want to know who determined that the money-losing company, known at the time as YRC Worldwide, was "critical to national security" and thus qualified for the national security loan program, which was authorized last year near the start of the covid-19 pandemic.
The company got the loan after spending $570,000 on lobbying last year, the report notes. The previous year, it had spent nothing, the report stated.
"The Commission makes note of the correlation between lobbying the government and Yellow's ability to secure a $700 million loan," the report stated.
Read more: https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2021/may/01/trucking-firms-loan-of-700m-from-us-a-mistake/?news-politics
Bid to end Arkansas' Confederate Flag Day fails before panel
LITTLE ROCK — An effort to end Arkansas' day set aside to commemorate the flag of the Confederacy failed before a Senate committee on Monday.
The proposal to end Confederate Flag Day, which is marked on the Saturday before Easter, failed before the Senate State Agencies and Governmental Affairs Committee.
The bill was approved by the House earlier this month. It would have replaced the day with Arkansas Day, which the legislation says is intended to reflect the state's "rich history, national treasures, diverse cultures, unmatched hospitality, shared spirit, and human resilience."
The top Republican in the House had sponsored the measure and has said that Confederate Flag Day was enacted in response to the 1957 desegregation of Little Rock Central High School.
Read more: https://www.swtimes.com/story/news/2021/04/27/bid-end-arkansas-confederate-flag-day-fails-senate/4853759001/
(Fort Smith Times Record)
Medical marijuana sales tax receipts surpass $30 million, overall sales will soon hit $300 million
Collections from Arkansas state taxes on medical marijuana purchases recently surpassed $30 million.
According to the latest report from the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration, the 6.5% state sales tax and 4% privilege tax established by the legislature have netted about $31,663,022 as of March 31, 2021.
Medical marijuana sales began in June 2019. While the 6.5% tax does not apply when a cultivator sells to a dispensary, the 4% does apply to those sales. Department of Finance and Administration spokesman Scott Hardin said the sales tax numbers have "exceeded expectations." Overall sales will soon surpass $300 million, he added.
Fort Cannabis Co., the only medical marijuana dispensary currently in Fort Smith, began operations in mid-December 2019. The next closest dispensaries are in Arkansas are located in northwest Arkansas and Clarksville. Others are located closer in Oklahoma.
Read more: https://www.swtimes.com/story/news/2021/04/30/arkansas-medical-marijuana-sales-tax-receipts-surpass-30-million-mark/7400493002/
(Fort Smith Times Record)
Will there be a fourth stimulus check? Americans are looking for clues.
Democratic lawmakers in both chambers of Congress are clamoring for a fourth round of stimulus checks to help Americans who are still struggling financially during the coronavirus pandemic.
Such a move could lift more than 7 million people out of poverty, according to a recent analysis from the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan think tank.
This comes as President Joe Biden marks his 100th day in office this week. Biden hasn’t said publicly whether he supports a fourth stimulus payment and there was no indication during his first address to Congress on Wednesday about introducing another bill with more direct payments.
Labor market and tax experts, however, don’t anticipate that there will be additional stimulus checks in the next relief package as the economy continues to recover from last year’s coronavirus-induced recession and the job market improves.
Read more: https://www.baxterbulletin.com/story/money/2021/04/28/stimulus-check-update-2021-fourth-covid-relief-payment-biden-speech/7340086002/
2021 Arkansas legislative nightmare: lawmakers stick it to their own constituents
A year into a pandemic that stole jobs, lives and any sense of stability, Arkansans might have hoped for some help when lawmakers convened in January for the 93rd General Assembly. What they got was a kick in the face.
Untethered by any check or balance on their hefty Republican supermajority, extremist lawmakers spent their time belittling and attacking their own constituents. For transgender children, renters, would-be voters, pregnant women or public safety advocates, Arkansas senators and representatives refused aid, offering insults and punishments instead.
A few football fields to the right of Donald Trump himself, the leaders of this legislative session stuck it to Democrats any way they could. And with the 105-29 R-to-D ratio (plus one newly declared independent) there wasn’t much the Democrats could do about it. Republican lawmakers gleefully embraced unconstitutional bills on guns and abortion rights that they acknowledged will cost the state plenty in legal fees and will likely get bounced out of court. Spending an untold amount of our tax dollars is worth it if state senators get to bellow about states’ rights and “dead little babies,” apparently. But even after the ACLU notches inevitable wins to take unconstitutional laws out of play, plenty of damage will remain. Voting will be harder, getting shot to death will be easier and securing the right to reproductive health in Arkansas will be nearing close to impossible.
Shockingly, and to Arkansas’s enduring shame, children bled the most in the 2021 culture war. Transgender children absorbed repeated body blows from elected adults who dehumanized and disregarded them. Rep. Mary Bentley (R-Perryville) called transgender children an “abomination” from the House well, which came to resemble the pulpit of a bad megachurch as lawmakers lined up there to defend their Christian bona fides and recite bastardized Bible verses as an excuse to exclude and abuse the least of these.
Read more: https://arktimes.com/arkansas-blog/2021/04/28/2021-arkansas-legislative-nightmare-lawmakers-stick-it-to-their-own-constituents
Former Jackson police officer sentenced to prison over involvement with 16-year-old
A former Jackson police officer has been sentenced to prison for destroying evidence of his involvement with a 16-year-old , the U.S. Attorney's Office said in a statement Friday.
U.S. District Judge Tom S. Lee sentenced former Jackson police officer Mark Anthony Coleman, 58, to 30 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release.
Coleman attempted to coerce a child under the age of 18 via cellphone to meet with him "for the purpose of engaging in sexually explicit conduct," according to court records. Prosecutors say he later destroyed evidence of his involvement with the teen.
The police department placed Coleman on administrative leave in May 2020 for conduct unbecoming of an officer.
He was indicted by a federal grand jury in July of 2020, and pleaded guilty in January 2021.
Read more: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2021/04/30/jackson-police-officer-sentenced-prison-involvement-teen/4895198001/
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Gender: MaleHometown: South Texas. most of my life I lived in Austin and Dallas
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