Kayla Mims
President-elect Joe Biden faces an historic set of challenges when he takes office in January, starting with a surging pandemic and the grave economic uncertainty it has spawned. In the meantime, Donald Trump is still president, and Congress faces a Dec.… Read more...
Louisiana’s petrochemical industry, in a slump since oil prices plummeted in 2014, took a major hit on Thursday when Shell announced it was shuttering its refinery in Convent. The announcement means the loss of 1,100 jobs – 700 Shell workers and 400 contract employees.… Read more...
The same Louisiana voters who gave President Donald Trump a decisive victory gave an even bigger rejection to a constitutional change that would have allowed large manufacturers to negotiate sweetheart tax deals with local governments. The Advocate’s Sam Karlin looks at the grassroots organizing led by Together Louisiana, which helped turn voters against the idea in all 64 parishes. … Read more...
Last spring, as the Covid-19 restrictions kept most Louisianans away from their state Capitol, corporate lobbyists and conservative activists rushed a pair of constitutional amendments through the Legislature and onto the Nov. 3 ballot: Amendment 4 proposed a restrictive new cap on what the state could spend each year on education, health care and other public services; Amendment 5 would have granted manufacturing corporations the ability to lower their tax bills through sweetheart deals with local governments.… Read more...