Legislation designed to end pay secrecy will be heard in the House Labor Committee today. Emelie Gunn has more…
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The Washington Post is reporting the US Department of Justice will not charge the Baton Rouge police officers accused of fatally shooting Alton Sterling last July. Halen Doughty has more…
Cut 2 (30) “I’m Halen Doughty”
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A measure by Representative Paul Hollis that would make it easier to recall elected officials clears a House panel. Jeff Palermo reports…:
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A bill to be heard in the House Labor Committee today would protect employees from retaliation for talking about their wages. Vice President of the United Way of Southeast Louisiana Charmaine Caccioppi is an advocate for ending pay secrecy.
Opposition is expected to come from the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry but Louisiana Progress Action says LABI always testifies the state has a law to prohibit pay discrimination, but this is not true. Caccioppi says she spoke with many low income individuals who say pay secrecy is a real problem in their workplace.
Caccioppi says their support for this measure does not mean they encourage employees in charge of salary information to discuss other’s income. But she says the legislation is the first tool in the tool box to prohibit employers from retaliating against someone who discusses salary.
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Leaders of state agencies are urging lawmakers not to cut their budgets, as the spending plan heading to the House floor is $237 million less than the governor’s budget proposal. The Louisiana Department of Health is facing a $235 million cut. Secretary Rebekah Gee says that means programs like school-based health centers, Zika defenses, and in-patient psychiatric treatment would be eliminated.
The Department of Children and Family Services would see a $19 million reduction under the budget proposal. Secretary Marketa Garner Walters says this would strip away 67 child welfare positions. She says it would also impact the budget for repairing the cars that workers use to take foster kids to school and family visits.
Cut 8 (10) “traumatic experience”
The budget plan includes an $11 million cut to the Department of Corrections. Secretary Jimmy LeBlanc says they’re already understaffed. He says in the evenings, they often have one correctional officer for 170 inmates at Angola.
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A lawmaker from Covington wants to make it easier for recall petitions to succeed in Louisiana, and his bill to do just that has cleared a House panel. The current rules state districts with more than 1,000 voters have 180 days to sign up a third of registered voters. Norco Representative Gregory Miller says he can see how that’s impossible…:
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Representative Paul Hollis said he brought the measure after failure to remove from office a St. Tammany Parish Coroner who is now in federal prison. Miller says the recall laws are meaningless in voting districts of that size:
Cut 11 (06) “large jurisdiction”
Under the measure headed to the House floor, the signature threshold would be lowered to 25% in districts with 25,000-100,000 registered voters — and jurisdictions larger than that to 20 percent. Hollis said but once a petition is successful, that’s not the end of the line…:
(An effort to recall Jefferson Parish President Mike Yenni over a sexting scandal was recently halted after organizers realized they wouldn’t get close to the to the requirement.)
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The Washington Post reports the U.S. Department of Justice will not charge the two Baton Rouge Police officers who were involved in the shooting death of Alton Sterling last July. Legal analyst Tim Meche says the D-O-J’s ruling is consistent with the opinion of many lawyers he’s spoken with…
Sterling was selling C-D’s outside a store last July when two officers went up to him after receiving a report he was threatening someone with a gun. Video shows a scuffle ensues and shots were fired at Sterling over concerns he was reaching for a gun. Meche says the officers had a right to do what they did.
Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry could still investigate to see if criminal state charges apply. But Meche doesn’t think that’s likely.