Category: Louisiana
FDA Wants Pause On Landmark Abortion Pill Suit. Pro-Lifers Say It Will Cost Lives
The FDA hinted it does not plan to weigh on the safeguards stripped under Biden until its mifepristone review is complete.
Trump-backed Republican launches bid to challenge GOP Senate incumbent
Republican Rep. Julia Letlow of Louisiana officially launched her campaign to oust Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) just days after securing an endorsement from President Donald Trump.
Trump came out in support of Letlow on Saturday, calling her a “Big Star” who would embrace the MAGA agenda. Although Republican operatives like the National Republican Senatorial Committee customarily endorse the incumbent, Cassidy’s controversial votes may have cost him the support of the president.
‘I am confident I will win.’
“I’m honored to have President Trump’s endorsement and trust,” Letlow said in a post on X. “My mission is clear: to ensure the nation our children inherit is safer and stronger.”
“This United States Senate seat belongs to the people of Louisiana, because we deserve conservative leadership that will not waver.”
RELATED: ‘Federal dollars should not pay for abortion, period’: Sen. Cassidy doubles down on Hyde, abortion pill restrictions
Shawn Thew/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images
While the race is shaping up to be a contested Republican primary, the NRSC is letting the chips fall where they may.
The Senate Republicans’ campaign arm is holding off from spending money on Cassidy, whom the NRSC endorsed, because “Louisiana will be won by a Republican regardless” and because the group doesn’t want to oppose the president, according to a source familiar with the NRSC’s decision-making.
RELATED: GOP senator warns Republicans will lose future elections if party continues to ‘idolize’ Trump
Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images
Notably, Cassidy was one of the few Republicans who voted to go forward with Trump’s second impeachment trial in 2021, later voting to convict the president. Despite this, Cassidy remains confident about his race.
“I’m proudly running for re-election as a principled conservative who gets things done for the people of Louisiana,” Cassidy said after Trump endorsed Letlow. “If Congresswoman Letlow decides to run I am confident I will win.”
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5-year-old boy weighed about 19 pounds at time of death, cops say: ‘Probably the worst case of child neglect I’ve seen’
Around 9 p.m. on New Year’s Day, deputies with the Ascension Parish Sheriff’s Office in Louisiana responded to a reported medical emergency involving a juvenile at a gas station in Geismar, the sheriff’s office said. Geismar is about 30 minutes southeast of Baton Rouge.
Upon arrival, deputies found 5-year-old Marley Perilloux unresponsive, officials said.
‘People be treating their pets almost better than that.’
Detectives told WAFB-TV the boy’s parents put him in a car and called 911 in search of help, and deputies met them at the gas station off Highway 73.
Deputies immediately began performing CPR on the boy while awaiting emergency services, the sheriff’s office said.
Marley was transported to an area hospital while deputies and other first responders continued life-saving measures, officials said.
Ascension Parish Sheriff’s Col. Donald Capelo told WAFB that medical professionals at the hospital “continued to work on the child for about 40, 45 minutes before the child just passed away.”
Detectives with the juvenile unit of the sheriff’s office opened an investigation following reports of apparent injuries on the juvenile and additional concerns of child neglect, including severe malnourishment, the sheriff’s office said.
During their investigation, detectives executed a search warrant at the home where Marley lived with his parents, 33-year-old Marlon Perilloux and 27-year-old Raynisa Young, officials said.
Detectives reported the home’s interior was in poor condition and barely livable due to Perilloux and Young’s negligence, officials said.
Detectives interviewed Perilloux and Young and learned that both parents failed to ensure proper hygiene, feeding, and medical care for Marley, who weighed about 19 pounds at the time of death, officials said.
Detectives arrested Perilloux and Young for negligent homicide, second-degree cruelty to juveniles, possession with intent to distribute marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia, and illegal carrying of weapons, the sheriff’s office said.
Both were transported to the Ascension Parish Jail with no bond, officials said, adding that additional or upgraded charges are pending.
In addition, investigators said Marley was bedridden and apparently never left the house, WAFB reported.
“This is probably the worst case of child neglect I’ve seen in my 34 years of law enforcement,” Capelo told the station. “To put it in perspective, when the coroners come out, there are body bags for adults, and there are body bags for infants. And this child, 5 years old, fit in an infant body bag.”
Cellphone video WAFB obtained shows the Geismar apartment where the family of six lived in squalor, the station said, adding that the unit was filled with trash, debris, and mattresses on the floor.
Neighbors told the station the news stunned them, and they had no idea what was happening inside the home.
“People be treating their pets almost better than that,” neighbor Calvin Lewis told WAFB.
Lewis added to the station that neighbors gladly would have helped if the family had asked.
“We’re a neighborhood where somebody needs something, that we have something going on,” Lewis told WAFB. “You’re more than welcome to come get a plate or, you know, any way we can help out.”
The state removed the three other children from the home, the station said.
The district attorney told WAFB that he will see if any other adults knew about the child’s condition — and if they did, they also could face charges.
An autopsy is pending, the station said, adding that investigators said it’s unclear when the child last ate.
Capelo urged parents dealing with tough times to seek help, WAFB noted.
“They need to seek help, whether it be through a family member, whether it be through [the Department of Children & Family Services], a division of the state, but you have to seek help,” he told the station. “You have to do whatever you can and whatever means you have to just take care of your children.”
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Naked woman ‘trying to be a mermaid’ in neighbor’s pond charges at deputy who deploys taser — which has ‘no effect’: Police
A nude Louisiana woman trespassed into a pond on her neighbor’s property to go skinny-dipping in an attempt to be a “mermaid,” according to police. The female suspect reportedly refused to comply with officers’ commands, prompting police to deploy a taser.
The Union Parish Sheriff’s Office said in a Wednesday statement that officers were dispatched to a residence in the Linville community of Marion in November regarding a trespassing complaint.
‘Sutton was taken to the ground, where she continued to resist detention and began kicking and punching the deputy.’
The caller told police that the neighbor was screaming while standing in a driveway. The caller claimed to have warned the suspect to stay off the property.
“Upon the patrol deputy’s arrival at the location, the suspect was located swimming, nude, in a pond on the caller’s property,” police said.
Police identified the suspect as 41-year-old Erin Elizabeth Sutton of Marion.
Sutton initially refused to exit the pond or speak with the deputy, telling police she was “trying to be a mermaid,” according to the statement.
After repeated commands, Sutton eventually exited the pond. Due to the cold conditions, EMS was called to evaluate Sutton.
A deputy gave Sutton a blanket and attempted to escort her inside a residence to warm up, when the suspect suddenly charged toward the officer, according to police.
“After several commands, Sutton refused to comply, and the deputy deployed a taser, which had no effect,” the statement read.
Police added, “Sutton was taken to the ground, where she continued to resist detention and began kicking and punching the deputy.”
After Sutton was restrained, EMS transported her to a local hospital for medical treatment. Police said Sutton “threatened to kill deputies and paramedics” while being transported to the hospital.
Because Sutton required medical treatment at the scene, deputies obtained arrest warrants at a later date. A Third Judicial District Court judge signed off on the warrants.
Sutton on Tuesday turned herself in to the Union Parish Sheriff’s Office.
Sutton was arrested on three felony counts of resisting an officer with force or violence, two felony counts of public intimidation, two felony counts of battery on a police officer, a misdemeanor charge of disturbing the peace/drunkenness, and a criminal trespassing misdemeanor charge.
Sutton’s bond was set at $62,000. The sheriff’s office on Monday told Blaze News that Sutton was still behind bars.
Fox News reported that it was not immediately clear if Sutton has retained legal representation.
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A red-state lawfare shakedown heads to the Supreme Court
The Republican Party claims to stand against lawfare — especially the obscene, rent-seeking variety that disguises itself as environmental justice. Yet that principle is about to be tested in a highly public and deeply embarrassing way.
The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on January 12 in Chevron v. Plaquemines Parish. Louisiana officials will face off against the Trump Justice Department and American energy producers in a landmark case over an attempted shakedown of oil companies for alleged responsibility for coastal erosion dating back to World War II.
Lawfare does not become acceptable because Republicans use it. And environmental shakedowns do not become conservative simply because they originate in a red state.
The basic claim is simple enough. Louisiana and several local governments have filed dozens of lawsuits alleging that oil and gas production over the last 80 years caused the erosion of the state’s coastline. But the structure and substance of these cases reveal something far more troubling.
Although the lawsuits were filed in the name of the state and its municipalities, control has effectively been handed over to politically connected plaintiffs’ lawyers — major donors who stand to reap enormous contingency fees. Through a so-called common interest agreement, the Louisiana attorney general’s office surrendered its obligation to independently assess the merits of the claims. In practice, the state abdicated its role to the trial-lawyer donor class.
That alone should raise alarms. The rest only makes it worse.
The lawsuits seek to impose liability for conduct that was lawful at the time and occurred as far back as eight decades ago. Ex post facto liability is fundamentally un-American, which is why almost no one attempts to defend it on the merits.
Even more awkward for Louisiana’s theory, virtually everyone outside the plaintiffs’ bar agrees on the primary cause of coastal erosion: decades of federal intervention by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which radically altered water flow in the Mississippi Delta. Louisiana once sued the federal government on exactly this basis. Now the same damage is somehow blamed on oil companies instead.
Because these claims reach back to the 1940s, they sweep in oil production carried out at the direction of the U.S. government to support the war effort — specifically the refining of aviation fuel for the military. It is a strange irony that after years of Democrat-led lawfare under the Biden administration, a red state has now delivered environmental litigation over World War II to the Supreme Court.
The hypocrisy is hard to miss.
The venue fight exposes the real game. Plaintiffs’ lawyers insist these cases remain in Louisiana state courts. The reason is obvious. Those courts are heavily influenced by the trial bar and have a record of staggering verdicts. Chevron was recently hit with a $745 million judgment in one such case.
Energy producers want the cases moved to federal court — not because victory is guaranteed but because federal courts are more likely to function as neutral arbiters. There is also a compelling jurisdictional reason: Much of the challenged activity involved federally directed wartime production. If any court belongs here, it is a federal one.
RELATED: America First energy policy is paying off at the pump
Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg via Getty Images
This kind of forum shopping should look familiar. It mirrors the Democrats’ strategy during the Biden years — carefully selecting friendly state courts to pursue political outcomes they could not secure through legislation. Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry (R) and Attorney General Liz Murrill (R) appear to have absorbed all the wrong lessons from all the wrong actors.
This is the same playbook used by New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) when she charged President Trump in state court for conduct governed by federal law. It is the same model California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) embraced when he partnered with trial lawyers to sue energy companies for billions over alleged climate harms.
Step back from the legal details and a larger problem comes into focus.
President Trump’s agenda prioritizes American energy dominance. His actions abroad reinforce that priority. Yet Republicans in Louisiana are not merely opposing that objective — they are using the very lawfare tactics they claim to despise to undermine it.
For voters trying to apply a consistent ideological framework, the whiplash is real. When red states start behaving like California, it is fair to ask whether America First has drifted from a governing philosophy into a monetization strategy.
Lawfare does not become acceptable because Republicans use it. And environmental shakedowns do not become conservative simply because they originate in a red state. If the right intends to oppose lawfare, it needs to oppose it everywhere — especially when its own allies are the ones doing the shaking down.
Cops Arrest Man Reportedly Targeting ICE Agents, Tie Him To Leftist Terror Group
Legnon operated online under the alias “Black Witch”
Unruly anti-ICE protesters shut down NOLA city council meeting — police carry out activist
New Orleans City Council’s Thursday meeting was brought to a standstill by spitting-mad activists protesting the Trump administration’s recent immigration crackdown in the city.
‘We’ll be back.’
The Department of Homeland Security confirmed this week the launch of Operation Catahoula Crunch in the Louisiana city, targeting criminal illegal aliens. The immigration enforcement efforts sparked backlash from some in the local community.
During a Thursday New Orleans City Council meeting, residents lined up to demand that council members designate all city-owned properties as “ICE-free zones” and pass an ordinance that prevents cooperation with immigration officials.
Several demonstrators held signs that read, “No collaboration with ICE/DHS.”
The council repeatedly muted the microphone after informing the protesters that their remarks were “not germane” to the agenda items.
Despite this, the activists continued to approach the microphone during public comments to repeat their demands. A couple of protesters refused to sit down and continued to shout and disrupt the meeting.
RELATED: This Southern sanctuary city is next on the list for federal immigration law enforcement
Photo by Adam GRAY / AFP via Getty Images
Council members responded by suspending public comment on the agenda item and calling a recess.
The crowd of protesters then erupted, shouting and screaming at both the council members and the police officers present in the chamber.
Videos captured by FreedomNews.tv showed police officers slowly escorting the protesting crowd out of the building, with many individuals refusing to leave. Several officers were forced to carry out one unruly activist.
After several minutes of scuffling, shouting, cursing, and some protesters defiantly raising middle fingers at officers, the crowd was finally locked out of the premises.
“We’ll be back,” they shouted at the police from the other side of the fence.
RELATED: Man flings Molotov cocktails at federal building while yelling ‘anti-ICE’ comments, feds say
Photo by Adam GRAY / AFP via Getty Images
According to NOLA.com, 30 protesters were ejected from the council’s chambers.
Toni Jones, an organizer for the event and a member of the New Orleans Alliance against Racial and Political Repression, told Verite News, “We haven’t seen City Council take a stand, and we demand that they declare they will not cooperate with [ICE] in any way.”
On Thursday, DHS highlighted the arrest of a kidnapper and sex offender as a result of Operation Catahoula Crunch. According to the department, he was previously sentenced to 40 years in prison and later released on parole.
“These are SICK people who have lived among us for far too long. THEY WILL GO BACK,” DHS stated.
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