Baton Rouge news stories on Newser

Distant Capitals = Corrupt States

Kevin Spak — Wed, 23 May 2012 13:30:05 CDT

James Madison once said that capital cities ought to be removed from the busiest parts of the country, so they'd be isolated from powerful interests. Well, guess again, Jim. A new study has found that states with distant capitals are much more likely to have rotten governments, the LA Times...

Louisiana Prepares to Flood Farmland

Rob Quinn — Sat, 14 May 2011 07:00:21 CDT

Louisiana—faced with the choice of flooding farmland or risking major floods in New Orleans and Baton Rouge —is preparing to open a relief valve and swamp large areas of farmland in Cajun country. The Morganza spillway is about to be opened for the first time in 38 years and...

Louisiana's Awful Choice: Flood Cities or Drown Farms?

Evann Gastaldo — Thu, 12 May 2011 08:57:05 CDT

In Louisiana, a terrible choice: Frantically sandbag the levees in an attempt to prevent a flood in New Orleans and Baton Rouge that could be greater than Katrina in some areas—or open a relief valve and purposely flood 200 miles of farmland, potentially destroying the livelihoods of many Louisiana...

New Orleans Again US Murder Capital

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 14:48:02 CDT

New Orleans is once again the US murder capital after briefly losing the title. Fresh FBI statistics show that with 64 killings per 100,000 people in 2008, New Orleans had the highest per-capita murder rate in the country, well ahead of second-place St. Louis, with 47 murders per 100,...

Porn Star Seeks La. Senate Seat

Harry Kimball — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 16:06:36 CST

Louisiana GOP Senator David Vitter will meet a substantial opponent in his 2010 bid for re-election: porn star Stormy Daniels, CNN reports. A grass-roots “Draft Stormy” campaign, unaffiliated with the state’s Democratic Party, has encouraged the buxom blond to run on a platform of the economy, women’s issues, and child...

Nursing Student Kills 2, Turns Gun on Self

Kevin Spak — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 14:47:38 CST

A student shot and killed two other students and herself this morning at the Louisiana Technical College in Baton Rouge, CNN reports. Police arrived within minutes, only to find all three already dead amidst widespread chaos. “There was mass pandemonium, people running,” a sergeant said. “One officer told me he...

Nation's First Indian Gov. Vows to Clean Up Louisiana

Peter Fearon — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 03:50:00 CST

Louisiana's first non-white chief executive since Reconstruction—and the first elected Indian-American governor in US history—vowed yesterday in his inauguration speech to clean up the corruption-plagued state. The charismatic Piyush "Bobby" Jindal, a Roman-Catholic convert from Hinduism, is a conservative Republican who also becomes, at age 36, the nation's...