Vinny Mosca, a Harahan pol and well-known criminal defense lawyer who loved to gab, has died at 74. 'Ninety percent of the people I represent are in jail,” he said: nola.com/news/politics/…

Two gorgeous columns from Danny Heitman about his daughter getting married 🥲: 'The most poignant line from this Sinatra standard, when he sings with soaring sentiment, 'There is nothing for me but to love you.''
theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/en…
wsj.com/articles/frank…

Great story from alenamaschke about the booming immigrant population in Lake Charles as many Latin American workers have come to help rebuild. El Gallo market sounds like my kind of place!

theadvocate.com/lake_charles/a…

A ban on non-unanimous jury verdicts will not be applied retroactively, the state Supreme Court ruled.

The decision could keep as many as 1,500 Louisiana inmates, most of them serving life sentences without parole, from getting new trials. nola.com/news/courts/ar…

This latest deposit to the rainy day fund will boost its balance to $903M, according to the Division of Administration. That will be higher than its balance has ever been. #lalege #lagov

The $727M state surplus is from the budget year that ended June 30. A quarter of the money must flow to the rainy day fund and 10% must be used to pay down retirement debt. Lawmakers will decide how to spend the rest in the regular session that begins in April. #lagov #lalege

Good morning, fam #MidnightsTaylorSwift

Developing this morning in Baton Rouge: 9 people were wounded in a mass shooting at a fraternity house just off Southern University's campus early this morning, police say. Police have said injuries appear non-life threatening. theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/ne…

Here's a recap from today's #lalege hearing about the state's child welfare agency. Some interesting things happening, including that DCFS is hiring 50 nurses to help check out cases involving substance exposed newborns. More details:
nola.com/news/article_a…

Notable section from Andrea Gallo's story today: While cuts under ex-Gov. Gov. Bobby Jindal plunged DCFS into crisis, Gov. John Bel Edwards has done little to rebuild the agency despite pledging to restore it to a level where it could 'fulfill its promise' to Louisianans.
theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/ne…

State Sen. Patrick McMath describes today's story as 'a pretty cheap shot at the legislature.' Says the story is incomplete, and that it's “not helpful to what we are up here trying to do.' #lalege

theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/ne…

“Frankly, the article today, we all feel like our toes have been stepped on. Everything you’re doing, we funded you for.' -Senate Pro Tem Beth Mizell tells this to DCFS officials at #lalege hearing

nola.com/news/article_b…

DCFS just gave some interesting stats at this hearing on child welfare investigations soaring:

2021: 1,406 investigations per month average
2022 (1st 6 months): 1,628 investigations per month average
2022 (since June): 1,940 investigations per month avg

nola.com/news/article_b…

I'm covering such a hearing at this moment: Senate Health & Welfare oversight committee is probing problems with DCFS #lalege .
Haney, a Baton Rouge juvenile court judge, said legislature should look inward as they cast blame: 'They’re at fault for woefully underfunding DCFS.”

When I talked to Judge Adam Haney in May, he made this prediction: child welfare workers were so overworked that a child would get seriously hurt or die, DCFS would be at fault, #lalege would be mad and call hearings. 1 month later, exactly that happened: nola.com/news/article_b…

The budget for Louisiana’s Dept of Children & Family Services is *half* of what it was 15 years ago, when adjusted inflation. Child welfare cases are quitting in droves. Yet #lalege spent a $100 million this year on pet projects like parks & golf courses
nola.com/news/article_b…

Plenty of alarms have been sounded over the last decade over the shabby shape of Louisiana's Dept of Children & Family Services. But few resources have been steered DCFS' way, even when the Legislature was flush w/ cash. From Andrea Gallo: nola.com/news/article_b…

Good morning! On our front pages today, the next installment of our “Suffering So Young” series. #Lalege is holding hearings on the many child welfare failures in Louisiana. How many of those can be traced back to DCFS’ budget, which the lege controls?
nola.com/news/article_b…