Latest news with #SenateBill99
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Shreveport Mayor highlights Economic Development Website, talks father's Day event, and speed camera bill
SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS)—Shreveport Mayor Tom Arceneaux highlights a new initiative to boost local business growth, celebrate community events, and address updates on traffic enforcement. Salute the Badge: A candid conversation with SPD Chief Wayne Smith One of the most significant announcements was the launch of a new economic development website, a one-stop shop designed to facilitate the city's collaboration with entrepreneurs and small business owners. 'When we came into office, we wanted to simplify the process for people to do business in and with the city,' said Mayor Arceneaux. 'You can now find checklists, permit information, and applications online, without needing to visit Government Plaza.' The website is accessible from the city's homepage and includes resources tailored to new and existing business owners. 'Small businesses create most of the jobs in this country,' the mayor emphasized, 'so we want to encourage an entrepreneurial spirit right here in Shreveport.' Mayor Arceneaux also expressed his excitement about the upcoming Father's Day 5K, organized by community leader Alex T. Ray. The mayor will attend—'more walking than running,' he joked—and praised the event's focus on fatherhood and community unity. 'There's strong data that shows children who grow up with a father or father figure do better in life.' Shreveport mayor speaks on La. speed camera bill The mayor also acknowledged recent successes that have brought national attention to the city, including the LSUS Pilots' national championship win and their record-setting 59–0 season. 'They'll be forever in the record books,' Arceneaux said proudly. Finally, he addressed Senate Bill 99, which limits the use of speed cameras to school zones. 'We're happy to continue that program, but we are exploring other ways to address the epidemic of speeding and red light running in the city,' he said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
02-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Efforts to unplug Louisiana's speed trap cameras create small-town discontent
Getty Images It looked for a moment that automated speed enforcement cameras in Louisiana might go the way of the Oldsmobile. But what was once an all-out ban on the devices now has an exception that threatens to force the proposal down a dead end. For the past two years, state lawmakers have tried to drastically scale back the use of technology that captures lead-footed drivers and red-light runners in the act and sends them tickets in the mail. While their boosters consider traffic enforcement cameras a force multiplier for manpower-strapped police departments, detractors see them as a money grab for local governments. Critics also pan the heavy burden placed on motorists who want to challenge their citations. The companies that provide speeding cameras to local police often handle fine collections and contested tickets, leaving no local avenue for appeals. 'It's taxation by citation,' Rep. Chuck Owen, R-Rosepine, said May 28 during a Louisiana House floor debate over a bill that would do away with speeding cameras everywhere but school zones. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX The debate has created bipartisan fractures at the State Capitol. One side believes local jurisdictions should be able to govern themselves – and that includes the use of traffic enforcement cameras as they see fit. The other viewpoint says speeding 'scameras' make it next to impossible for drivers to challenge their tickets. 'I've got preachers' mommas calling me, telling me they're getting tickets. They didn't even know they were speeding,' Rep. Mike Johnson, R-Pineville said last week before the House approved Senate Bill 99, by Sen. Stewart Cathey, R-Monroe. Cathey brought his new proposal after authoring a law last year that established requirements for using speeding enforcement cameras in Louisiana. They include signage to let motorists know they are being monitored. Plus, cities and towns must provide a local administrative process for motorists to appeal their tickets. But because a handful of municipalities still won't follow the rules, Cathey came back this year with what he's called 'a bill with teeth.' If approved, police chiefs and municipal leaders who continue to ignore the requirements can be charged with malfeasance in office. The penalty for that crime can be up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine. When Cathey's bill went before the Senate in April, Sen. Alan Seabaugh, R-Shreveport, amended it to ban the use of the cameras everywhere but school zones. Louisiana set to spend at least $7 million to bring Saudi-owned LIV Golf to New Orleans In its current form, the legislation would not apply to red light cameras. But every other speeding enforcement camera in Louisiana would be shut down – with one notable exception. An amendment placed on the bill in the House would exclude the city of Opelousas, where sponsor Rep. Dustin Miller, a Democrat, said speed enforcement cameras allow his hometown police department to commit more officers to combatting violent crime. That exception doesn't sit well with Cathey, who's been highly critical of small-town leaders who he says refuse to follow the existing law. He's declined to name them publicly, but he hasn't held back his opinion on Opelousas' leadership. 'You know, I may just buy a billboard outside of Opelousas to let everybody know that it's the speed trap capital of Louisiana,' Cathey said in an interview Friday. Miller's amendment passed by the slimmest margin in a 47-46 vote, with the updated bill gaining approval in a 72-23 vote. In an interview after the House adjourned, Miller said his city shouldn't be penalized for the wrongful actions of other municipalities. 'They're claiming that there's, like, seven towns that's doing illegal stuff,' he said. 'Well, as far as my knowledge, Opelousas is doing it correctly. So I'm just like, allow them to still do it where they're doing it.' In an interview last week, Cathey said he lacks confidence in Opelousas Police Chief Graig LeBlanc to manage the city's speeding enforcement cameras. The senator noted LeBlanc is currently under criminal indictment for a shooting that allegedly stemmed from a love triangle. The state attorney general is prosecuting the case, in which the chief has been charged with obstruction of justice and malfeasance in office. LeBlanc and his wife, St. Landry Parish Sheriff's Deputy Crystal LeBlanc, were injured in the shooting. Calls to the police chief seeking comment were directed to the department's public information officer, who has not responded to questions about the city's camera program. Opelousas Mayor Julius Alsandor also has not responded to calls and emails. Louisiana senators trim private education vouchers, expand Medicaid budget LeBlanc and other local police leaders have appeared at the Capitol to oppose Cathey's bill, as have small town mayors who argued the legislature should respect their autonomy. Shreveport Mayor Tom Arceneaux also testified against the Cathey bill. Reggie Skains has been the volunteer, unpaid mayor of Downsville for 39 years. The town at the border of Lincoln and Union parishes has a population of less than 150 residents, yet it sees far more traffic because it's at the nexus of two state highways in north Louisiana. In the first six days Downsville deployed speeding enforcement cameras, it issued 419 tickets, the mayor said. 'This is not driving safely,' Skains told a legislative committee, stressing the cameras meet a need in his community. Roosevelt Porter is the police chief of Epps, a village of less than 400 just minutes away from the Poverty Point World Heritage Site. He said although Epps is within Cathey's Senate district, he had not heard from the senator about his bill. Speeding enforcement cameras in his village issued 3,500 tickets in their first month, but the number fell to 1,500 in the second month, Porter said. 'I could care less if this thing makes money,' the police chief told a House committee in April. 'If it slows people down, that is what's important to me.' Porter grew more emotional as he continued his testimony, shouting and coming close to tears at his conclusion. 'My town is at your mercy, but I know how this stuff works,' he said. 'Let that be your family member that comes through there and gets killed. What are you going to do then?' When Cathey's bill went before a Senate committee, Sen. Caleb Kleinpeter, R-Port Allen, said the measure would have prevented the scandal that unfolded within his district last year when a West Baton Rouge Parish constable issued more than 4,000 school zone speeding tickets over a two-week period. The infractions each came with a $150 fine, but Attorney General Liz Murrill determined the constable had no authority to enforce traffic laws and had to refund what was collected. Cathey said last week he was unsure about the outlook for his bill now that an exception has been added to it. He predicted other towns and cities would seek similar exemptions. 'Currently, Opelousas is the speed camera capital of Louisiana,' the senator said. 'And if the people of Opelousas don't like it, they need to reach out to their local legislators and let them know.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Montana judge strikes down law banning gender-affirming care for minors
A Montana court has struck down a 2023 state law banning gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors, finding the measure's prohibitions unlawful and in conflict with the state's constitution. In a 59-page ruling on Tuesday, District Court Judge Jason Marks ruled that Senate Bill 99, adopted by the state Legislature two years ago along party lines, violates the Montana Constitution's rights to privacy, equal protection and free speech. A lower court had temporarily blocked the law from taking effect in 2023, a decision upheld by the state Supreme Court last year. State Republican lawmakers argued in passing the bill that such a measure was necessary to protect children from taking drugs they said are experimental and making decisions they may later regret. Marks wrote in his ruling Tuesday that Montana does not ban other medical treatments on the basis of potential risks or inadequate evidence of efficacy, and a separate law also passed during the 2023 session expands adults' and minors' ability to receive medications that the Food and Drug Administration has not yet approved. 'The court is forced to conclude that the state's interest is actually a political and ideological one: ensuring minors in Montana are never provided treatment to address their 'perception that [their] gender or sex' is something other than their sex assigned at birth,' Marks wrote. 'In other words, the state's interest is actually blocking transgender expression.' Phoebe Cross, a 17-year-old transgender boy who led the legal challenge to Senate Bill 99, said he was grateful for Marks's decision. 'I will never understand why my representatives worked so hard to strip me of my rights and the rights of other transgender kids. It's great that the courts, including the Montana Supreme Court, have seen this law for what it was, discriminatory, and today have thrown it out for good,' Cross said Tuesday in a statement released by his legal team at Lambda Legal, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the ACLU of Montana. Cross is joined in the lawsuit by his parents, two physicians and two unnamed plaintiffs. 'Today, the court saw through the state's vitriol and hollow justifications and put the final nail in the coffin of this cruel, and discriminatory, law,' said Lambda Legal staff attorney Nora Huppert. 'No parent should ever be forced to deny their child access to the safe and effective care that could relieve their suffering and provide them a future.' In an email, Chase Scheuer, press secretary to Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen (R), said the state plans to appeal Tuesday's ruling, which he called an 'outrageous rejection of common sense.' 'Yet again, the Montana judiciary ignored the will of Montanans and went out of its way to advance the woke agendas of their political allies before the state could get a fair trial,' Scheuer said. A spokesperson for Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte, whose nonbinary child had lobbied him to veto the bill, did not immediately return a request for comment. In a post on the social platform Bluesky, Montana state Rep. Zooey Zephyr, a Democrat censured in 2023 for saying Republicans who voted to pass Senate Bill 99 would have 'blood on your hands,' said she was glad the law was defeated and that the state's constitution 'continues to protect trans people from government overreach and animus.' She wrote in a separate post that she would not seek an apology from House Republicans who voted to punish her for her remarks. 'I neither want nor care for their apology. They will simply be footnotes in the story of trans liberation,' Zephyr said. The decision to strike down Montana's law comes as the Supreme Court prepares to rule this summer on whether such restrictions are constitutional. Half the nation since 2021 has adopted laws that ban gender transition-related care for minors, and President Trump has sought to end federal support for gender-affirming care for youth through an executive order that two court orders currently block. Major medical organizations, including the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, have said gender-affirming care for both transgender adults and minors is medically necessary and often lifesaving. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
14-05-2025
- Health
- The Hill
Montana judge strikes down law banning gender-affirming care for minors
A Montana court has struck down a 2023 state law banning gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors, finding the measure's prohibitions unlawful and in conflict with the state's constitution. In a 59-page ruling on Tuesday, District Court Judge Jason Marks ruled that Senate Bill 99, adopted by the state legislature two years ago along party lines, violates the Montana Constitution's rights to privacy, equal protection and free speech. A lower court had temporarily blocked the law from taking effect in 2023, a decision upheld by the state Supreme Court last year. State Republican lawmakers argued in passing the bill that such a measure was necessary to protect children from taking drugs they said are experimental and making decisions they may later regret. Marks wrote in his ruling Tuesday that Montana does not ban other medical treatments based on potential risks or inadequate evidence of efficacy, and a separate law also passed during the 2023 session expands adults' and minors' ability to receive medications that the Food and Drug Administration has not yet approved. 'The court is forced to conclude that the state's interest is actually a political and ideological one: ensuring minors in Montana are never provided treatment to address their 'perception that [their] gender or sex' is something other than their sex assigned at birth,' Marks wrote. 'In other words, the state's interest is actually blocking transgender expression.' Phoebe Cross, a 17-year-old transgender boy who led the legal challenge to Senate Bill 99, said he was grateful for Marks's decision. 'I will never understand why my representatives worked so hard to strip me of my rights and the rights of other transgender kids. It's great that the courts, including the Montana Supreme Court, have seen this law for what it was, discriminatory, and today have thrown it out for good,' Cross said Tuesday in a statement released by his legal team at Lambda Legal, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the ACLU of Montana. Cross is joined in the lawsuit by his parents, two physicians and two unnamed plaintiffs. 'Today, the court saw through the state's vitriol and hollow justifications and put the final nail in the coffin of this cruel, and discriminatory, law,' said Lambda Legal staff attorney Nora Huppert. 'No parent should ever be forced to deny their child access to the safe and effective care that could relieve their suffering and provide them a future.' In an email, Chase Scheuer, press secretary to Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen (R), said the state plans to appeal Tuesday's ruling, which he called an 'outrageous rejection of common sense.' 'Yet again, the Montana judiciary ignored the will of Montanans and went out of its way to advance the woke agendas of their political allies before the state could get a fair trial,' Scheuer said. A spokesperson for Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte, whose nonbinary child had lobbied him to veto the bill, did not immediately return a request for comment. In a post on the social platform Bluesky, Montana state Rep. Zooey Zephyr, a Democrat censured in 2023 for saying Republicans who voted to pass Senate Bill 99 would have 'blood on your hands,' said she was glad the law had been defeated and that the state's constitution 'continues to protect trans people from government overreach and animus.' She wrote in a separate post that she would not seek an apology from House Republicans who voted to punish her for her remarks. 'I neither want nor care for their apology. They will simply be footnotes in the story of trans liberation,' Zephyr said. The decision to strike down Montana's law comes as the Supreme Court prepares to rule this summer on whether such restrictions are constitutional. Half the nation since 2021 has adopted laws that ban gender transition-related care for minors, and President Trump has sought to end federal support for gender-affirming care for youth through an executive order that two court orders currently block. Major medical organizations, including the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, have said gender-affirming care for both transgender adults and minors is medically necessary and often lifesaving.
Associated Press
14-05-2025
- Health
- Associated Press
Montana judge finds transgender care ban unconstitutional
A state district court judge in Missoula on Tuesday ruled that a 2023 state law banning many gender transition-related medical services for transgender minors is unconstitutional, prohibiting its enforcement. The 59-page ruling from district court Judge Jason Marks found that Senate Bill 99, backed by Republicans largely along party lines during the legislative session two years ago, violates the Montana Constitution's rights to privacy, equal protection and free speech. The law had been temporarily enjoined before it was scheduled to take effect. The Montana Supreme Court upheld that block in 2024. The court found that plaintiffs, including transgender teen Phoebe Cross and other minor patients, their parents and medical providers, successfully presented evidence that the law undermines their constitutional rights by curbing access to medical treatments for gender dysphoria, such as puberty blockers and hormones. The ruling said state attorneys, meanwhile, failed to meet the legal burden of proof that SB 99 properly responded to a legitimate medical risk or was narrowly tailored to achieve the government's interests. 'Defendants are unable to clearly and convincingly establish that a bona fide health risk exists. They have not put forth any evidence showing major medical organizations in the United States have changed their stance on gender-affirming medical care. Instead, they argue that no medical consensus exists on the benefits of gender-affirming care. This is the incorrect standard. The question is whether a medically acknowledged, bona fide health risk exists,' Marks wrote. All parties agreed that the banned treatments, like all medical services, pose some degree of risk to patients, the judge found. But allowing the state to interfere in medical decisions because of the presence of any risk would be irrational, Marks noted. Similarly, he dismissed the state's arguments that some medical professionals disagree about the proper course of care for gender dysphoria. 'If some disagreement among medical professionals were enough to create a medically acknowledged, bona fide health risk, every medical treatment would … be subject to state interference,' he ruled. The decision referenced a long history of Montana court rulings supporting bodily autonomy and privacy in medical decision-making, many of which arose from litigation about abortion restrictions. Those rulings created and have reinforced a high bar for the state to interfere with medical care. Marks specifically referenced the 1999 Montana Supreme Court ruling in Armstrong v. State that found abortion access is protected by the Constitution's right of individual privacy. 'Importantly, the 'legal standards for medical practice and procedure cannot be based on political ideology, but, rather, must be grounded in the methods and procedures of science and in the collective professional judgment, knowledge and experience of the medical community acting through the state's medical examining and licensing authorities,'' the judge wrote, quoting Armstrong. Marks also found that SB 99 unconstitutionally infringed on the free speech of medical providers by prohibiting the use of state funds to promote or advocate for the banned procedures. Among other provisions, the law would have barred physicians from referring a patient for gender transition-related treatment, even in other states. 'Therefore, the Court must find that SB 99 is a content-based regulation and invidiously discriminates on the basis of viewpoint,' the judge found. 'This goes beyond any permissible regulation of conduct. It unconstitutionally bars providers from telling minors and their parents that gender-affirming medical care, which is endorsed and cited as authoritative by major medical associations in the United States for treating gender dysphoria, is an option.' Representatives from the ACLU of Montana and Lambda Legal, civil rights groups that represented the plaintiffs in the case, celebrated the ruling in Tuesday evening statements. Cross, the lead plaintiff, said he would 'never understand' why lawmakers passed the law. 'It's great that the courts, including the Montana Supreme Court, have seen this law for what it was, discriminatory, and today have thrown it out for good,' he said. Press secretaries for Attorney General Austin Knudsen, whose office represented the state in the lawsuit, did not respond to a request for comment about the ruling. The state could appeal the decision to the Montana Supreme Court. ___ This story was originally published by Montana Free Press and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.
