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 was the Director of Special Collections at the University of Alabama, where Lee would speak to students once a year. 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.
Funeral services for Lee have not yet been announced.
Albert Woodfox, the last remaining member of the Angola 3, plead no contest to manslaughter for the 1972 killing of a prison guard, which is expected to pave the way for his release this afternoon. Woodfox entered the plea at the West Feliciana parish courthouse. He has spent the last four decades in solitary confinement for killing prison guard Brent Miller, but his conviction was recently tossed out. The Attorney General’s office plans to try him again, which led to today’s plea of no contest.
A new poll from Invest in a Healthy Louisiana and Public Opinion Strategies finds increasing the tobacco tax is favored by voters including smokers in all demographics. Pollster Glen Bolger says the survey finds out of 500 likely Louisiana voters many people want to raise tobacco taxes by a significant amount. He says intensity matters in polling….
Increasing the cigarette tax by $1.25 would raise more than $200 million a year for Louisiana.
The ACLU of Louisiana issued a statement in response to the latest Crime Stoppers video by St. Landry Parish’s Captain Clay Higgins that’s gone 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 says Higgins also shouldn’t be calling these suspects “heathens” which is a religious term that implies he knows something about their beliefs…: