Atalco alumina refinery faces lawsuit from Louisiana environmental group lailluminator.com/2025/11/03/a...

Ohtani is a beast!

Louisiana is prepared to spend $150m per month out of a savings account to keep federal food assistance (SNAP) going during the shutdown. The Trump administration said Friday it won't reimburse states for doing so. #lalege lailluminator.com/2025/10/24/l...

The lawsuit alleges but doesn’t specify how the tanks were defective lailluminator.com/2025/10/15/s...

He is 13. A 7th grader w/ a pending asylum case. Being held more than 500 miles from home & housed w/ adults. He called his mom crying, & reported that he’s sleeping on concrete w/ an aluminum blanket. How is this anything other than sick & shameful? www.bostonglobe.com/2025/10/12/m...

UNC Professor Dwayne Dixon, whose unpaid leave was lifted last week, denounced the actions of Chancellor Lee Roberts as harmful to free speech. By @kingdollar.bsky.social #ncpol #unc

The EPA says it has begun additional water sampling from areas where contamination remains from the Aug. 22 Smitty’s Supply Inc. industrial explosion in Tangipahoa Parish. @wesmuller.bsky.social reports lailluminator.com/briefs/water...

The Environmental Protection Agency has known for weeks which specific hazardous and radioactive materials were present at Smitty’s Supply Inc. when it went up in flames and exploded last month, but they're not telling the public. lailluminator.com/2025/09/24/e...

Breaking News: The Pentagon said it would require journalists to pledge not to use unauthorized information or risk losing credentials to cover the military.

Breaking news: The House Oversight Committee released more documents related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s estate and federal investigation, including testimony from former Attorney General William Barr.

Pentagon approves National Guard to carry weapons in D.C. as federal takeover extends. W/ an assist from @wesmuller.bsky.social www.newsfromthestates.com/article/pent...

Louisiana vets new voting machines as Trump threatens to eliminate them nationwide lailluminator.com/2025/08/27/l...

Fast-tracking a vote originally expected to happen in October, the La. Public Service Commission plans to decide Wednesday whether to approve an Entergy power plant for Meta's giant data center in NE Louisiana. @wesmuller.bsky.social reports: lailluminator.com/2025/08/19/m...

BREAKING: President Trump fires the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics hours after weak jobs report.

Unquestionably the most dangerous and corrupt attack on the independence of US economic data in American history. Trump is firing the head of the BLS, a longtime civil servant confirmed 86-8 by the Senate, simply because the job numbers came in below his expectations today

On this week’s episode of The Light Switch, I talked to Rep. Rashid Young about his new task force on name, image and likeness. #lalege #lagov

EXCLUSIVE: Southeastern Louisiana University has removed a scientist from a research team that exposed the presence and sources of toxic metals in Lake Maurepas. @wesmuller.bsky.social reports lailluminator.com/2025/07/31/s...

“I think the president is really bringing this country closer and closer to a dictatorship, and I’ve said to my constituents the best way to deal with a bully is to stand up to him,” Fields said. lailluminator.com/2025/07/29/f...

I appreciate the headline from @jaywillis.net on all this. Angus King Says He Voted to Confirm This Anti-Choice Trump Nominee Because Josh Hawley Asked Nicely ballsandstrikes.org/nominations/...

NEW: Rep. Gabe Evans has mischaracterized the story of how his grandfather immigrated to America, according to documents obtained by Newsline. The Colorado Republican has repeated a false version of the story as part of his support of Trump's deportation policies. By @chasewoodruff.bsky.social

RED ALERT: Regulators discover more toxic discharges from the Atlantic Alumina facility near Gramercy, just months after citing the refinery for spewing waste with arsenic, cadmium, chromium and other heavy metals into state waters. @wesmuller.bsky.social reports lailluminator.com/2025/07/18/a...

BREAKING: Donald Trump sues Dow Jones, News Corp, Rupert Murdoch, WSJ reporters for libel, court records show reut.rs/3TNpulG

NEW INVESTIGATION: Over several days, the Sewerage & Water Board approved the intentional disposal of thousands of gallons of raw sewage into the city’s stormwater drainage system, records show. @wesmuller.bsky.social reports lailluminator.com/2025/07/17/r...

The average human brain now contains enough tiny plastic fragments to equal the weight of a plastic spoon, a 50% increase since 2016. @bynum.house.gov and @jeff-merkley.bsky.social introduced a bill with Florida Republicans today to target microplastics. buff.ly/cZ40Fbt by @jmshumway.bsky.social

"[Governor] Landry has said the project would 'break' Louisiana’s culture of shrimp and oyster harvesting and compared it to government efforts a century ago to punish schoolchildren for speaking Cajun French."

Via @alander.bsky.social: A Georgia man accused of running a $140 million Ponzi scheme contributed a total of $132,000 to three elected Alabama GOP officials or their PACs, according to finance records. A PAC run by one of the recipients later made a $29,000 loan to one of the man's businesses.

Greg Abbott signed a law that bans talking at night because when you gotta stop campus protests over Israel's genocide in Palestine, you gotta whole hog violate people's first amendment rights. www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/outl...

#LSU’s ‘Plant Doctor’ works around the clock to heal Louisiana farms

NEW: Nearly 6,000 students w/o permanent legal immigration status will lose access to federal financial aid for workforce education programs, creating funding gaps for the Louisiana Community and Technical College System. @piperhutch.bsky.social reports lailluminator.com/briefs/undoc...

Rather than use vacuum trucks to clean up the fecal matter and take it to a treatment facility, the SWBNO chose to pump it all into the storm ditches because they believed there was simply too much sewage for the vacuum trucks to handle. lailluminator.com/2025/07/17/r...

Interestingly, it appears we’re seeing a real case where commitment to a (long-held conspiratorial) belief > partisan motivated reasoning among many MAGA supporters. Fascinating from a social science perspective, I’m not sure I’ve seen many cases of that

Community activists with ancestral ties to enslaved people at Louisiana plantations are using a unique legal theory to gain access to an unmarked slave cemetery on the property of a petrochemical company. @wesmuller.bsky.social reports: lailluminator.com/2025/07/12/s...

NET LOSSES: Menhaden harvesting in the Gulf of Mexico kills more than 22,000 redfish annually in Louisiana waters, according to an new study. State officials say that's far fewer than the number recreational anglers discard each year. @wesmuller.bsky.social reports lailluminator.com/2025/07/10/s...

In the middle of signing several insurance bills into law, Gov. Jeff Landry took time to taunt a fellow Republican, state Sen. Alan Seabaugh from Shreveport, who has been criticizing the governor publicly. Story from @wesmuller.bsky.social #lalege lailluminator.com/2025/06/30/g...

Starting next month, most cell phone use while driving will be banned in Louisiana. Read more from @wesmuller.bsky.social lailluminator.com/briefs/phone...

U.S. gross domestic product (GDP), which measures the total value of the goods and services produced, shrunk for the first time since 2022 and Louisiana posted the worst GDP rate in the Southeast region.  lailluminator.com/2025/07/02/i...

“We tried to rein in lawyer advertising,” Landry said. “Senator Seabaugh seemed to not be able to come to work that day, and that bill died...Last time we tried that bill, the [former] governor vetoed it. This time a senator couldn’t show up for work.” lailluminator.com/2025/06/30/g...

Abraham Lincoln, who was not president at the time of the Dred Scott ruling, obviously did not do this. He didn’t even *advocate* ignoring the outcome the way the Trump administration is doing. He advocated treating it as only binding on the particular parties.

The video of John Spitzberg's arrest has been shared widely across social platforms, becoming a crystalizing moment for those protesting the Trump administration.

Michael Pham fled Vietnam at the age of 13. He was named bishop of San Diego a month ago. Today, he stood watch at a courthouse: ICE agents were “standing there covered with masks as we walked toward the courtroom. Eventually the agents scattered and went away” timesofsandiego.com/life/2025/06...

UPDATE with reaction and analysis: Louisiana’s Ten Commandments classroom display law rejected by 5th Circuit panel. AG Murrill says she'll take the case before the U.S. Supreme Court if needed. @wesmuller.bsky.social reports: lailluminator.com/2025/06/20/l...

POLLUTION CONFIRMED: Southeastern Louisiana University scientists have found dangerously high levels of toxic metals and other contaminants in Lake Maurepas and have traced most of it to industrial and other human activities. @wesmuller.bsky.social reports lailluminator.com/2025/06/19/s...

A new poll shows that nearly two-thirds of Americans do not support the "big, beautiful bill" tax policy changes and spending cuts being pushed through Congress by Republicans and President Trump ohiocapitaljournal.com/2025/06/17/r...

LISTEN: ‘The Light Switch,’ Episode 10: Red Alert at the Atalco Alumina Refinery, w/ @wesmuller.bsky.social lailluminator.com/podcasts/lig...

Nobody is rioting. Nobody is breaking any laws. These are cops in my city of Las Vegas just assaulting and arresting anyone on Fremont Street who looks at them. This is fascism.

Mardi Gras parades in early January have 10x this many people

Ariel view of thousands of protesters marching against Donald Trump in Downtown Los Angeles #NoKingsProtest

Confusion over the bill that many hoped would be cleared up only deepened Monday, specifically on whether the proposal would apply only to future state employee hires or if it could be used to remove existing state employees. @wesmuller.bsky.social reports lailluminator.com/2025/06/09/c...

The federal government is moving to take over the California National Guard and deploy 2,000 soldiers. That move is purposefully inflammatory and will only escalate tensions.

There’s that word “facilitate” again