If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. That’s what Harahan Representative John Illg is doing with legislation to ban outdoor balloon releases. Last year, his bill to create a new law to ban the intentional release of balloons sailed through the legislature, only to have Governor Landry veto it, saying it would be unenforceable. At the Love The Boot Week kickoff event, Illg says that’s no reason not to have a law on the books.
Cut 6 (07) “…against the law.”
So this time, Illg’s bill adds intentional balloon releases to the state’s existing law against intentional littering. It’s currently one Senate vote away from landing on Landry’s desk. Illg says passing a law at the state level is all well and good, assuming it can gain Landry’s signature this time, but a state law doesn’t go far enough.
A measure to crack down on marijuana use near school facilities advances to the Senate. The full House passed Pollack Representative Gabe Firment’s bill on a vote of 59-to-34. It would increase the penalty for smoking marijuana within two-thousand feet of a school facility to up to a year in prison and up to a one-thousand-dollar fine. Firment said marijuana use near schools is getting out of control.
Cut 4 (11) “…little meaningful consequence.”
Marrero Representative Kyle Green expressed concerns that some people’s homes are located within that two-thousand-foot zone and, thus people who live there may face serious criminal charges for something they do in their own homes.