Our Views

Editorial: Essence Festival at 30 showcased the event's enduring impact in New Orleans, beyond

STAFF EDITORIAL
Updated 3 mins ago

Thousands of people from Louisiana and elsewhere swarmed the Essence Festival of Culture during the Fourth of July weekend as Essence and the city celebrated a 30-year relationship.

Editorial: Once again, a fiscal cliff looms

STAFF EDITORIAL
Jul 7, 2024

If the term “fiscal cliff” sounds familiar to Louisiana taxpayers, it should. We’ve been here before, and not all that long ago.

Editorial: Permitless carry makes citizens guinea pigs in gun experiment

STAFF EDITORIAL
Updated Jul 3, 2024

A state with the nation’s highest per capita rate of gun violence, Louisiana is about to embark on an experiment that most residents do not want. Permitless concealed carry, which passed the L…

Editorial: Juvenile detention in the state is a mess that needs urgent attention

STAFF EDITORIAL
Jul 2, 2024

Juvenile detention in the state of Louisiana is so broken that the Office of Juvenile Justice is paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to reserve beds in a rural jail that it might not even …

Editorial: Catholic Charities, LEH, other groups aiding Louisianans deserve better

STAFF EDITORIAL
Jun 30, 2024

One notable strength of our state is the many nongovernmental agencies working to make Louisiana communities stronger. Often these organizations receive taxpayer dollars to supplement their fu…

Editorial: Taking steps to close wealth gap should be a political and moral imperative

STAFF EDITORIAL
Updated Jun 27, 2024

Economic equality remains an elusive ideal in Louisiana.

Editorial: A sensible ruling on gun rights gives glimmer of hope

STAFF EDITORIAL
Jun 26, 2024

Advocates for survivors of domestic abuse around the country breathed a sigh of relief last week, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that laws preventing abusers from possessing firearms are co…

Editorial: In the end, regulators got it right on redfish limits

STAFF EDITORIAL
Jun 25, 2024

Louisiana has perhaps no more iconic fish than the redfish.

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Editorial: New school grades make sense; education stunts don’t

STAFF EDITORIAL
Jun 23, 2024

In recent years, Louisiana has had a pretty good story to tell on the education front. The state was widely lauded for gains in fourth-grade reading during the pandemic that outpaced most othe…

Editorial: Give Louisiana's coastal funding crisis the attention it deserves

STAFF EDITORIAL
Updated Jun 20, 2024

Louisiana faces a number of crises, but perhaps none so existential as the one at the coast.

Editorial: Juneteenth celebrates freedoms belatedly won

STAFF EDITORIAL
Jun 19, 2024

A version of this editorial has been published in previous years.

Editorial: Court confusion on redistricting has consequences for candidates, voters

STAFF EDITORIAL
Updated Jun 20, 2024

When U.S. Rep. Garret Graves, R-Baton Rouge, reversed himself late last week and said he would not run for reelection after a district map approved in January vastly altered his district, few …

Editorial: A changing of minds leads to justice

STAFF EDITORIAL
Updated Jun 17, 2024

We were gratified to learn last week that the Louisiana State Supreme Court had, in a surprising move, reversed a decision it had made earlier this year and declared the state's “lookback wind…

Editorial: For troubled Sewerage & Water Board, some steps in the right direction

STAFF EDITORIAL
Updated Jun 13, 2024

The Sewerage & Water Board has long been the butt of jokes and a target of angry complaints, but a new poll by the New Orleans Crime Coalition puts some stark numbers behind the derision: …

Editorial: Baton Rouge deserves better judges than these

STAFF EDITORIAL
Jun 13, 2024

It's been a rough few months in the legal system of East Baton Rouge Parish.

Editorial: Lafayette school system needs your voice

STAFF EDITORIAL
Jun 13, 2024

The Lafayette Parish School system is embarking on a strategic planning process this summer and fall in an effort to determine what public education will look like in the future. It has hired …

Editorial: Ahead of Super Bowl LIX, infrastructure push is the biggest game in town

STAFF EDITORIAL
Updated Jun 14, 2024

Louisiana, and New Orleans in particular, have earned bragging rights as a great place to host major events; there’s a reason the NFL keeps bringing the Super Bowl back to the old standby Supe…

Editorial: Congress should act to renew the Farm Bill

STAFF EDITORIAL
Jun 11, 2024

Every five years, Congress takes up the sprawling farm bill, a laden piece of legislation that impacts millions of Americans nationwide and has broad ramifications for agricultural and other policy.

Editorial: Session was jam-packed with action, but its impact less clear

STAFF EDITORIAL
Jun 9, 2024

If there’s a word for the annual legislative session that ended last week — indeed, for the three sessions that lawmakers have held since they took office in January — it might be “frenetic.”

Editorial: Finally, the OMV giving Louisiana drivers a break

STAFF EDITORIAL
Jun 5, 2024

Being able to drive a car is a necessity for most people. Without a driver's license, it’s hard to hold down a job, get to school and doctors’ appointments or provide essential care to childre…

Editorial: Smiley's legacy lives on in readers who loved him

STAFF EDITORIAL
Updated Jun 9, 2024

To call Smiley Anders a south Louisiana institution is, if anything, to understate what he meant to many readers.

Editorial: Ideological content has no place in Louisiana public schools

STAFF EDITORIAL
Jun 2, 2024

Louisiana Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley points proudly to the state’s “new, rigorous social studies standards that teach students about American exceptionalism and our quest for a m…

Editorial: If state is going to offer insurers carrot, it must also carry a stick

STAFF EDITORIAL
May 30, 2024

The misery that many Louisiana homeowners faced after Hurricane Ida as they tangled with insurers to get money to rebuild their destroyed homes has been well documented. The Category 4 storm t…

Editorial: As hurricane season approaches, make safety a priority early

STAFF EDITORIAL
May 29, 2024

The imminent arrival of June 1 brings with it a sense of foreboding for many across Louisiana.

Editorial: Anti-abortion lawmakers practicing bad medicine

STAFF EDITORIAL
Updated May 28, 2024

In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, Republican-controlled legislatures have engaged in a strange and frightening competition to see which state can enact the most restricti…

Letters: Protesters hurting their own cause by breaking laws

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Updated May 28, 2024

Pro-Palestinian protesters, supposedly students, illegally blocked St. Charles Avenue for about an hour on April 26; police did not stop them and merely rerouted traffic.

Letters: Calling on Scalise to urge Congress to act to ensure funds for Alzheimer's research

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Updated May 28, 2024

With over 6 million Americans, including 95,000 Louisianans, grappling with Alzheimer’s, the imperative for decisive action against this relentless disease cannot be ignored. Having lost my mo…

Editorial: This Memorial Day, take a moment to reflect

STAFF EDITORIAL
Updated May 28, 2024

Barbecues, sales, pool parties and an unofficial summer kickoff. For many, those are the things that Memorial Day heralds. The last Monday in May has become a day of celebration and relaxation.