The ACLU of Louisiana responds to the latest rather aggressive Crime Stoppers viral video by St. Landry Parish’s Captain Clay Higgins looking for wanted Gremlins Gang members. Emelie Gunn reports..:
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Harper Lee, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “To Kill A Mockingbird,” has died at the age of 89. Halen Doughty reports…
CUT 2 (31) “I’m Halen Doughty”
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The ACLU of Louisiana has responded to the latest Crime Stoppers video by St. Landry Parish’s Captain Clay Higgins that’s gone ridiculously viral. Higgins is looking for wanted members of the Gremlins Gang and says they each have a $2500 bounty on their head. ACLU of Louisiana Executive Director Marjorie Esman has a problem with that…:
CUT 3 (06) “summary execution”
Higgins video had nearly 14 million views in just two days. Esman feels like all this does is exacerbate the problem of a public who feels cops are the bad guys….:
CUT 4 (09) “what police officers do”
Esman says Higgins also shouldn’t be calling these suspects “heathens” which is a religious term that implies he knows something about their beliefs…:
CUT 5 (10) “they’re committing crimes”
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Harper Lee, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “To Kill A Mockingbird,” has died at the age of 89. Head of Special Collections at LSU Jessica Lacher Feldman says Lee’s death is the end of an era. Feldman worked at the University of Alabama, where Lee spoke to students once a year. Feldman was Lee’s handler when she visited and says Lee’s novel resonated deeply with many people.
Feldman says Lee’s recently released book “Go Set A Watchman,” broke many publishers records. Feldman says Lee’s first novel was influential because Lee wrote about race and gender issues in a very real, but idealized, way.
There has been speculation as to whether Lee wrote any more books that were not published. Feldman says her death may bring more writings to light.
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A new poll from Invest in a Healthy Louisiana and Public Opinion Strategies finds increasing the tobacco tax is favored by seven out of 10 voters. Pollster Glen Bolger says the survey polled 500 likely Louisiana voters and many people are opposed to hikes in the state’s income, sales or property taxes, but favor an increase to the state’s tobacco tax…
The Invest in a Healthy Louisiana Coaltion is advocating a $1.25 per pack increase in the tobacco tax. So far, only a 22-cent increase has been discussed by the legislature. Bolger says the poll asked people about three different tax levels and found no statistical difference between the options.
Increasing the cigarette tax by $1.25 would raise more than $200 million a year for Louisiana. Bolger says the increase is popular across party lines…
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Dozens of students marched to the state capitol in efforts to protest the proposed cuts to higher education to offset the massive budget deficit. A graduate of Nicholls State University and LSU, Peter Jenkins, attended the Save our Schools rally to make legislators pay attention and stop these drastic measures…
Jenkins says they want the legislators to do what they need to do to save higher education. He says students are calling for three different things…
Jenkins believes legislators understand the situation and don’t have ill-will toward the situation but are only trying to figure out how to solve the deficit. But he says it’s their job as students to be heard…
Students chanted at the steps of the Capitol in efforts to prevent future cuts to higher education…