Last week a heat wave swept through the Gulf South, and while some residents can cool off with air conditioning, the vast majority of inmates in the state have no access to it. Louisiana is one of 13 states in the hottest part of the country that lack guaranteed air conditioning in their prisons. And for years, inmates have been suffering from the consequences.
Samantha Kennedy, executive director of The Promise of Justice Initiative, a New Orleans-based group that works to create positive change for people in the criminal legal system, says rising temperatures in prisons are violating inmates’ rights.
Governor Edwards recently signed a bill requiring that children in Louisiana under the age of 16 will soon need parental consent to open social media accounts. The bill, authored by Covington Republican senator Patrick McMath, would also require social media companies to make reasonable efforts to verify the ages of account holders.
Clare Sullivan, reporter for the Louisiana Illuminator, tells us how this bill is part of a new wave of efforts across the country to increase scrutiny over minors’ social media accounts.
But first, what would you do if your power bill skyrocketed from about $100 to $500? That’s the question we’re exploring in our latest story for our Utility Bill of the Month series, where we look at what’s going wrong with our utilities one bill at a time.
For this month we look at one New Orleans resident’s year-long attempt to understand her chaotic power bills. The Gulf States Newsroom’s Stephan Bisaha reports on her journey and the steps customers can take to get their bills fixed.
Today’s episode of Louisiana Considered was hosted by Karen Henderson. Our managing producer is Alana Schreiber and our digital editor is Katelyn Umholtz. Our engineers are Garrett Pittman and Aubry Procell.
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