A Texas judge has fined a New York doctor for prescribing abortion pills to a woman near Dallas in one of the first challenges in the U.S. to shield laws enacted in Democratic-controlled states where abortion is legal.

The City of New Orleans says it has spent more than 18 months preparing to host its 11th Super Bowl on Feb. 9.

Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana has emerged as a central figure in the confirmation of Robert F.

Frigid temperatures engulfed Texas and other parts of the South ahead of a rare winter storm expected to bring heavy snow and disruptive ice accumulations to the region.

Heavy snow is expected to blanket large portions of the Eastern U.S. while much of the country will endure dangerously cold temperatures in the coming days.

Conservative members of Freedom Caucus have achieved a first.

Among his first actions in office, new Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe issued a volley of orders targeting crime.

Snipers were positioned on rooftops outside the Superdome in New Orleans as fans filed in for the Sugar Bowl between Georgia and Notre Dame.

The FBI now says the New Orleans truck attack acted alone when he drove a pickup truck into a crowd of New Year’s revelers, killing 14 people.

The FBI now says that the pickup truck driver responsible for a deadly rampage in New Orleans acted alone.

A driver behind the wheel of a pickup truck rammed into a crowd of New Orleans revelers on Bourbon Street early on New Year’s Day, killing at least 15 people in what the FBI is investigating as an act of terrorism.

The College Football Playoff quarterfinal in New Orleans has been postponed a day after a truck plowed into a New Year’s crowd about a mile away from the site of the Sugar Bowl between Georgia and Notre Dame.

The city of New Orleans and local community groups are offering PlayStations to people willing to turn in guns.

Louisiana’s prison system routinely holds people weeks and months after they have completed their sentences.

Facebook’s parent company Meta says it will build a $10 billion artificial intelligence data center in northeast Louisiana.

Louisiana voters will decide the fates of four proposed amendments to the state constitution, in what will be the final statewide election of 2024.

Louisiana’s GOP-dominated legislature passed tax cuts on personal and corporate income on Friday in exchange for a statewide sales tax increase.

A caged tiger was wheeled onto the Tiger Stadium field for the first time in nearly a decade before kickoff of Saturday night’s game between No. 14 LSU and No. 11 Alabama.

A southeast Louisiana school board voted to shut down a predominantly Black elementary school next to a petrochemical facility embroiled in multiple lawsuits over its high levels of toxic emissions.

The Supreme Court is taking up a new redistricting case involving Louisiana’s congressional map with two mostly Black districts.

Residents of the historic Black community of Elkinsville in southeastern Louisiana have elevated their fight against an ammonia plant proposed nearby.

Louisiana officials have begun moving a homeless encampment near the Superdome in New Orleans, days before three weekend concerts by Taylor Swift.

Louisiana’s 2020 Teacher of the Year, has filed a lawsuit challenging a new state law that requires the Ten Commandments to be displayed in every public school classroom by Jan. 1.

A federal judge has heard arguments on whether he should temporarily block a new Louisiana law that requires the Ten Commandments to be displayed in every public school classroom by Jan. 1.

Gov. Jeff Landry confirmed his support on Tuesday of restarting the tradition of bringing Louisiana State University’s live tiger mascot onto the football field ahead of home games.

Residents of the Carrollton neighborhood in New Orleans are among the thousands of utility customers in the city who remain without power after Hurricane Francine passed through.

Francine is weakening after striking Louisiana as a Category 2 hurricane as it heads far inland from the Gulf Coast.

Francine has become a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico as it bears down on the Louisiana coast.

Tropical Storm Francine has strengthened in the Gulf of Mexico and is forecast to make landfall as a hurricane at mid-week in Louisiana.

A slew of legislation passed by Louisiana’s GOP-dominated legislature earlier this year went into effect Thursday.

Christians and Jews believe in the Ten Commandments — just not necessarily the version that will hang in every public school and state-funded college classroom in Louisiana.

Civil liberties groups have filed a lawsuit challenging Louisiana’s new law mandating that the Ten Commandments must be displayed in every public school classroom.

Just months into office, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry has gained national attention for his push for groundbreaking conservative policies.

A bill signed into law this week makes Louisiana the only state to require that the Ten Commandments be displayed in every classroom in public schools and colleges.

Louisiana has become the first state to require that the Ten Commandments be displayed in every public school classroom.

Louisiana lawmakers gave final approval to a bill that would allow judges the option to order someone to undergo surgical castration when the person is convicted of a sex crime against a child younger than 13.

Civil rights attorneys say a new Louisiana law that makes it a crime to approach within 25 feet of a police officer under certain circumstances is an affront to the movement for racial justice and violates the First Amendment.

Denka Performance Elastomer in Louisiana threatened to shut down if the Biden administration doesn't give it more time to reduce its emissions.

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry has signed a first-of-its-kind bill to classify two abortion-inducing drugs as controlled and dangerous substances.

Louisiana lawmakers have approved a first-of-its-kind bill that would classify two abortion-inducing drugs as a controlled and dangerous substances.

Rolling Stones' frontman Mick Jagger waded into Louisiana politics during the band's performance at The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.

A new Louisiana congressional map giving the state a second majority-Black House district has been rejected by a panel of federal judges.

Unlike recent years when there was an LGBTQ+ ally in the Louisiana governor's office, nothing stands in the way this year of legislation hostile to transgender people.

Louisiana politics have been dominated this year by new Republican Gov. Jeff Landry’s special legislative sessions to address crime and adopt new congressional maps.

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry officially called for a highly anticipated crime-focused special legislative session on Thursday that could overhaul the state’s current criminal justice system, reversing hard-fought and historic reforms that happened under Landry’s Democratic predecessor.

The Louisiana Legislature passed a congressional map with a second majority-Black district on Friday, marking a win for Democrats after a legal battle and political tug-of-war that spanned nearly two years.

Louisiana’s newly inaugurated lawmakers are set to convene for a special session during which they will discuss items that could impact how the state conducts elections.

Louisiana lawmakers now have until the end of January to draw and pass new congressional boundaries to replace the current map that a federal judge says dilutes the power of the state’s Black voters.

Republicans in Louisiana have swept three runoff races for powerful statewide offices: attorney general, secretary of state and treasurer.

Louisiana voters will return to the polls to decide runoff elections in which no candidate received a majority of the vote in the October primary.

The Environmental Protection Agency spent more than a year investigating whether Louisiana's oversight of industrial air emissions discriminated against Black residents.

Attorney General Jeff Landry has won Louisiana governor’s seat, fending off a crowded field of candidates.

The race to replace Democratic Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards tops the list of contests voters will decide Saturday in one of only three gubernatorial elections scheduled this year.

Voting rights advocates are locked in a court fight with Louisiana's top Republicans over whether the state must follow Alabama’s court-ordered path in drawing a new, Black-majority congressional district.

Louisiana’s Republican-dominated Legislature overturned Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards’ recent veto of a ban on gender-affirming care for transgender minors on Tuesday.

A controversial bill — that at one point had been presumed dead — banning gender-affirming medical care for transgender youths in Louisiana was passed by the Senate on Monday and is likely to reach the governor’s desk.

Activists in Louisiana are voicing concerns over a bill advancing in the GOP-controlled House to restrict children and teens from accessing public library books deemed “sexually explicit.”.

Longstanding disagreements about content in school libraries often focus this year on books with LGBTQ themes.

Louisiana's Republican U.S. Sen. John Kennedy told supporters on Wednesday that he will not run for governor in October.

A federal appeals court has ruled that Congress gave too much power to a nonprofit authority it created in 2020 to develop and enforce horseracing rules.

Both of Louisiana's U.S. senators say they have considered running for governor in 2023 and will announce their decisions soon.

The Louisiana Bond Commission has approved a $39 million future line of credit for a critical New Orleans area power plant project that had become an unlikely pawn in the ongoing political tug-of-war over enforcing Louisiana’s near-total abortion ban.

Access to abortion in Louisiana has been back-and-forth for weeks — with the state’s three clinics relying on rulings and temporary restraining orders to continue operations.

For weeks, access to abortion in Louisiana has been flickering — with the state’s three clinics relying on rulings and temporary restraining orders that allowed them to continue operations.

Abortion clinics in Louisiana can continue operating under the latest order from a state court.

Court battles over abortion continue to play out in multiple states.

Louisiana authorities have once again been blocked from enforcing the state’s near total ban on abortion.

Louisiana authorities can now enforce the state’s ban on almost all abortions under a new court order.

Arizona’s Republican attorney general says a total ban on abortions that has been on the books since before statehood can be enforced.

A federal court has allowed Tennessee to ban abortions as early as six weeks into pregnancy.

The owner of seven Louisiana nursing homes whose residents suffered in squalid conditions after being evacuated to a warehouse for Hurricane Ida has been arrested.

An effort by President Joe Biden's administration to account for potential damage from greenhouse gas emissions when creating rules for pollution-generating industries has survived another court challenge.

An appeals court has revived a Biden administration effort to account for potential damage from greenhouse gas emissions when creating rules for polluting industries.

Republican elected officials across the U.S. are criticizing President Joe Biden over his energy policies and want to ramp up domestic production as a way to help wean the nation and its allies off oil from Russia.

A federal judge on Friday blocked the Biden administration’s attempt to put greater emphasis on the potential damage from greenhouse gas emissions in the federal rulemaking process.

President Joe Biden has an opportunity for a reset on climate policy after a federal judge rejected an administration plan to lease millions of acres in the Gulf of Mexico for offshore oil drilling.

Federal judges in Louisiana and Texas continue to chip away at Biden administration COVID-19 vaccine mandates.

A second set of states has filed a federal lawsuit challenging the Biden administration’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for health care workers.

A federal court has declined to lift its stay on the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate for businesses with 100 or more workers.

The Biden administration is framing its vaccine mandate for private employers in life-and-death terms in a legal filing that sought to get the requirement back on track after it was halted by a federal court.

A federal appeals court has temporarily halted the Biden administration’s vaccine requirement for businesses with 100 or more workers.

Across the U.S., some public officials and other community leaders are trying to help people come up with ways to get exempted from having to wear masks or get vaccinated against COVID-19.

The New Orleans Saints have adopted a new refund policy allowing fans to relinquish their season tickets and get their money back.

Both Republican and Democratic senators are pressing Interior Secretary Deb Haaland for answers after a federal court blocked the Biden administration’s suspension of new oil and gas leases on federal lands and waters.

A federal judge in Louisiana has ordered an end to the Biden administration's suspension of new oil and gas leases on federal land and water.

These are busy days for Republican state attorneys general, filing repeated lawsuits that claim President Joe Biden and his administration are overstepping their authority on immigration, climate change, the environment and taxes.

The White House said climate adviser Gina McCarthy “made clear that the administration is not fighting the oil and gas sector." AdThe meeting came after weeks of friction over moves the administration made to halt new oil leasing on federal lands and to review Trump administration deregulation efforts aimed at helping U.S. oil and gas producers. Despite the moratorium on new leases, the Biden administration has continued to issue permits for existing leases, including more than 200 in March, records show. Companies could claim they have the right to extract oil and gas after spending years and millions of dollars to secure leases. Thirteen states sued the Biden administration Wednesday to end the leasing suspension.

The agreements say Arizona, Indiana, Louisiana and Texas are entitled to a 180-day consultation period before executive branch policy changes take effect. The Biden administration rejects that argument on grounds that immigration is solely the federal government's responsibility under the Constitution. The Trump administration, usually eager to trumpet immigration enforcement, stayed publicly quiet on the agreements, which were first reported by BuzzFeed News. It is our hope that the SAFE agreement will foster timely communications about any significant forthcoming policy changes. “For our entire history, immigration policy has been understood to be the exclusive responsibility of the federal government,” Legomsky said.

Luke Letlow, who was only 41 and had no known underlying health conditions, died Tuesday night at Ochsner-LSU Health Shreveport — days before he was scheduled to be sworn into office, according to his spokesman Andrew Bautsch. Ghali, of LSU Health Shreveport, told The Advocate that Letlow didn't have any underlying health conditions that would have placed him at greater risk of developing complications from COVID-19. "There was no one like Luke Letlow, and there was no one who loved this state and its people more. Luke was a part of our family, and we are so incredibly proud of the man he was.”Before working for Abraham, Letlow had worked for former Gov. Letlow is one of more than 7,000 people in Louisiana who have died from COVID-19 since March, according to data from the state health department.

There were 1,225 new confirmed COVID-19 cases increasing the state total to 60,873. ___WASHINGTON -- Pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and BioNTech will seek emergency government approval for their coronavirus vaccine, as the U.S. aims to begin administering doses by the end of the year. ___LOUISVILLE, Kentucky — Kentucky reported a new daily record of 3,649 coronavirus cases Thursday amid warnings by Gov. He and public health experts are warily watching the number of patients hospitalized with the COVID-19 disease caused by the coronavirus. ___WASHINGTON — Infection disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci says he “wants to settle” concerns about a coronavirus vaccine as he returns to the White House podium for the first time in months.

DENVER – Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, on Tuesday donated an additional $100 million to helping local election offices prepare for November even as some conservatives are stepping up their efforts to stop the funds from being used. The contribution brings the total funding for the election from Zuckerberg and Chan to $400 million — the same amount that Congress allocated in March to help fund election offices as they dealt with the difficulties of adapting to new voting behavior during the coronavirus pandemic. Zuckerberg and Chan stepped into the gap initially in September, with a $300 million donation. These funds will serve communities throughout the country -- urban, rural and suburban – and are being allocated by non-partisan organizations.”Zuckerberg added that most election offices that applied have fewer than 25,000 registered voters in their jurisdictions. Some conservatives have criticized CTCL for donating to election offices in large Democratic-leaning cities in swing states.

Across the U.S., state and local officials are trying to balance the competing priorities of protecting their citizens from the coronavirus while keeping the economy running. President Donald Trump also visited Atlanta on Wednesday, arriving at the airport without a face mask. Edwards' initially had resisted a statewide mask order, but changed his mind as case numbers began rising rapidly in Louisiana. Yale University law professor David Schleicher says in cases like Georgias, where it is the state versus local government, the state almost always wins. Thats not to say it is absolute.Schleicher pointed to Wisconsin where the state Supreme Court voted in May to strike down Democratic Gov.