Governor Edwards hints at the possibility that he won’t be signing HB4, a House and Senate backed effort to give lawmakers the ability to strike down certain public health restrictions on businesses. Edwards says he will not be surrendering any authority to people whose approach he finds “totally unreasonable.”
Should Edwards veto this legislation the House would reportedly move ahead with signing a petition that would end the public health emergency wholesale, triggering a likely court battle.
The Senate Judiciary Committee rejects legislation barring the state from penalizing churches and church-goers for gathering for in-person services against state orders during an emergency. The hearing led to an animated exchange between Shreveport Senator Gregory Tarver and the bill’s author Oil City Representative Danny McCormick.
Five people have been arrested for allegedly stealing money from the state’s unemployment trust fund via fraud and identity theft. The unemployment trust fund is now borrowing money from the feds to keep the checks coming for those out of work. Attorney General Jeff Landry says it takes money from those who need it.
Cut 7 (08) “to do” (AM)
Two of those arrested, Kayla Giles and Teri Thibodeaux allegedly ran a massive fraud scheme targeting unemployment programs in multiple states using 25 stolen identities to siphon off 300,000 dollars in total. Giles was already awaiting trial on a 2nd-degree murder charge from 2018.