Daily Dime
Fair Wayne Bryant was 38 years old in 1997 when he was convicted in Caddo Parish for attempting to steal a pair of hedge clippers. His sentence? Life in prison, the result of ridiculously harsh state minimum sentencing laws for people with multiple convictions.… Read more...
The $600 weekly federal bump in unemployment insurance payments expired at the end of July, and negotiations on a renewal are far from resolved. That leaves unemployed workers in Louisiana with a maximum benefit of $247 per week—one of the lowest benefit levels in the nation—while Covid-19 keeps many industries shuttered.… Read more...
U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy believes two of his favored provisions – more aid to state and local governments and another round of stimulus checks – as a possible compromise for negotiations on the next round of coronavirus relief legislation. Additional aid to states is one of the main points of contention in stalled negotiations, with the Democratic-led House proposing an additional $1 trillion in state aid to avoid severe and widespread state budget crises, while the Republican-led Senate’s plan only contains money for schools that reopened for in-person classes.… Read more...
The $600 per week in federal unemployment benefits that were helping more than 450,000 jobless Louisianans – many with little or no savings to fall back on – have officially expired. Unless Congress can agree on a new round of relief funding to replace those payments, help state and local governments plug budget holes and shore up public school funding, things will soon get much worse.… Read more...