The Pastor Protection Act, which would allow clergy members to refuse to marry a same sex couple, failed to get enough votes to pass the Senate Judiciary Committee. Halen Doughty has more…
CUT 1 (30) “I’m Halen Doughty”
================
Legislation to withhold funding for construction projects in cities that don’t enforce federal immigration laws died in a Senate committee. Emelie Gunn has more…
===================
On a three-to-two vote a Senate committee voted against The Pastor Protection Act, which would have provided protection for religious organizations if they refuse to perform a same sex marriage. Bossier City Representative Mike Johnson says this bill is NOT as expansive as some of the religious freedom bills passed in other states.
But New Orleans Senator JP Morrell says pastors and clergy members are already protected under the Religious Freedom Protection Act. He says he doesn’t see a need for this bill.
But Johnson says religious freedom protection is becoming more and more narrow. He says the Obama Administration even said that each state will have to figure out how to balance protecting people’s rights once gay marriage was legalized.
This bill won easy approval in the House on an 80-18 vote, but New Orleans Senators Karen Peterson and Morrell fought against this legislation in Senate Judiciary B. It received opposition from LGBT groups and Morrell expressed their concerns during debate in committee today.
===============================================
A House-approved bill that would punish so-called sanctuary cities by making it difficult for them to borrow money for construction projects was defeated in a Senate committee. The legislation was designed to force New Orleans and Lafayette to follow federal immigration laws. New Orleans Police Superintendent Michael Harrison spoke out against the bill…
Supporters of the legislation said this bill would help keep cities safe from illegal immigrants. Jefferson Parish Sheriff Newell Normand spoke out in opposition about the unintended consequences this measure brings to his community…
Normand says this Sanctuary City legislation is not needed and makes no sense…
===================================================
Governor John Bel Edwards and other state and local officials cut the ribbon today on the Curtis Coleman Memorial Bridge over the Red River in Rapides Parish. Rodney Mallet with the Department of Transportation says this new bridge will benefit all drivers in Cenla.
Mallet says this bridge will be good for the region as it continues to grow because it connects Pineville and Alexandria and is also the cut through to I-49. He says a lot of time and money went into building the new US 71 bridge.
Mallet says all four lanes of the bridge are now open, which he says will benefit people cutting through from one highway to another. He says the old bridge, the OK Allen Bridge, was not up to date on its safety standards.
cut 12 (09) “central Louisiana”
===================================================
5th District Representative Ralph Abraham introduces legislation that seeks to combat what he says is an executive overreach on the issue of transgender bathrooms in public schools. President Obama issued a decree that public schools must let transgender students use the bathroom consistent with their gender identity, or risk losing federal funding. Abraham says the President can’t threaten to withhold money that is appropriated by Congress.
Abraham says his bill clarifies the term “sex” to refer to a person’s biological sex, not their gender identity. He says a person’s gender shouldn’t be based on how they feel that day, and he says he’s tired of the President pushing his liberal agenda before he leaves office.
Abraham says the term “sex” has been widely interpreted to refer to biological sex for 40 years, and his bill reduces the ambiguity suddenly surrounding the word. He says he expects a positive response to the bill.
===================================================