Hundreds of thousands of people were left without power after Hurricane Francine made landfall in <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/louisiana" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Louisiana</a> on Wednesday, bringing torrential winds and rain. 
As of Thursday morning, Francine had been <a href="https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/text/refresh/MIATCPAT1+shtml/121142.shtml" target="_blank" rel="noopener">downgraded</a> to a tropical storm, and there were an <a href="https://poweroutage.us" target="_blank" rel="noopener">estimated</a> 391,159 customers without power in Louisiana and 64,247 without power in Mississippi. The storm system is expected to move through Louisiana on Thursday and impact other southern states. 
Francine made landfall as a category 2 hurricane at 5:00 p.m. local time in the southern Louisiana Parish of Terrebonne on Wednesday. Its maximum winds were up to 100 miles per hour, according to the National Hurricane Center, and hit Morgan City hard with rain and wind. 
&#8220;It&#8217;s a little bit worse than what I expected to be honest with you,&#8221; <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hurricane-francine-louisiana-power-outages-wind-rain-flooding/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> Morgan City Sheriff Alvin Cockerham, according to CBS. &#8220;I pulled all my trucks back to the station; it&#8217;s too dangerous to be out there in this.”
In New Orleans, Miles Crawford <a href="https://www.wdsu.com/article/live-tv-rescue-hurricane-francine-new-orleans/62165066" target="_blank" rel="noopener">helped</a> save a man stuck in a truck submerged in water. He used a hammer to break open the vehicle&#8217;s window and helped pull the man out of the truck after going into the flooded street. 
A flash flood emergency was declared Wednesday in New Orleans as it was hit with six to eight inches of rain. 
<a href="https://www.amiracist.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.amiracist.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1724361346607000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1ZhyOQfEkxcMH_D1Ago3CQ">Tickets for “Am I Racist?” are on sale NOW! Buy here for a theater near you.</a>
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Thursday morning that Francine will turn north in the next day or so and start slowing down. 
“On the forecast track, the center of Francine will move over central and northern portions of Mississippi through early Friday,” it said in an update. “Maximum sustained winds have decreased to near 35 mph (55 km/h)  with higher gusts. Continued weakening is forecast, and Francine is expected to become a post-tropical cyclone later today.”
The storm is also expected to bring heavy rain to Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida. 
“Francine is expected to bring storm total rainfall of 3 to 6 inches across portions of Mississippi, eastern Arkansas, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, and the Florida Panhandle. Localized amounts up to 10 inches are possible within rain bands over portions of central and northern Alabama and over the Florida Panhandle. This rainfall could lead to locally considerable flash and urban flooding,” NOAA said. 
President Joe Biden <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2024/09/10/president-joseph-r-biden-jr-approves-louisiana-emergency-declaration-5/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">approved</a> an emergency declaration from Louisiana to mobilize federal assistance for storm response.

Louisiana Residents Prepare As Hurricane Francine Heads Towards Coastline

Thousands Left Without Power After Hurricane Francine Makes Landfall In Louisiana

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An illegal immigrant from Honduras suspected of kidnapping and raping a 13-year-old girl in Louisiana surrendered to the Kenner Police Department on Wednesday.
Diego Rodriguez-Salvador, 24, is accused of holding a 13-year-old girl at knifepoint while driving her to his trailer park home and raping her, NBC&#8217;s New Orleans affiliate WDSU <a href="https://www.wdsu.com/article/kenner-kidnapping-rape-teen-suspect-sought/62056382" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>. Police asked for the public&#8217;s help in finding Rodriguez-Salvodor before he turned himself over to authorities in New Orleans. WDSU reported that police initially struggled to find the suspect because he is &#8220;undocumented,&#8221; and Kenner Police Chief Keith Conley described him as &#8220;a ghost.&#8221;
&#8220;I&#8217;ve said it over and over again, it is a challenge for law enforcement across the whole country. When [illegal immigrants] come into this country, they&#8217;re basically ghosts,&#8221; Conley said at a news conference. &#8220;They disappear. We have no identifiers. It&#8217;s challenging to even identify them through any of our databases.&#8221;
The 13-year-old victim told police that she previously knew Rodriguez-Salvador since he was one of her brother&#8217;s friends. The girl said that Rodriguez-Salvador told her he was driving her to the store, but when she noticed he was driving in the wrong direction, she told authorities that the suspect pulled out a knife. After arriving at his trailer park home, Rodriguez-Salvador allegedly forced himself on the girl.
&#8220;Anybody that uses a knife and overpowers a 13-year-old girl to rape them and then flees, that&#8217;s a coward,&#8221; Conley said.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
MIGRANT CRIME: An illegal alien in Kenner, Louisiana has been arrested for kidnapping and raping a 13-year-old girl.
Kamala&#8217;s illegals are committing horrific crimes every single day.
President Trump will send these criminals back to where they came from. <a href="https://t.co/3giPp6ouoT">pic.twitter.com/3giPp6ouoT</a>
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) <a href="https://twitter.com/TrumpWarRoom/status/1831710484564697524?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 5, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> 
The chief added that the date Rodriguez-Salvodor entered the U.S. is still unknown. The Department of Homeland Security is involved in the investigation.
Earlier this year, two illegal immigrants from Venezuela were <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/mother-of-12-year-old-alleged-murdered-by-venezuelan-illegal-aliens-speaks-out" target="_blank" rel="noopener">charged</a> in the murder of 12-year-old Houston girl, Jocelyn Nungary. Prosecutors allege that Johan Jose Rangel Martinez, 21, and Franklin Jose Pena Ramos, 26, &#8220;lured&#8221; Nungaray &#8220;under a bridge&#8221; where they &#8220;remained with her for over two hours, took her pants off, tied her up and killed her, then threw her body into the bayou.&#8221;
Illegal immigration has become a top concern for voters heading into the 2024 election as Customs and Border Protection has reported record numbers of migrant encounters at the southern border under the Biden administration.

Illegal Immigration

Illegal Immigrant Arrested After Allegedly Kidnapping, Raping 13-Year-Old Girl

Assault

Border Crisis

Child rape

The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday threw out a challenge brought by two Republican state officials and conservative social media users challenging the White House&#8217;s pressure campaigns on social media companies to remove what the Biden administration deems &#8220;misinformation.&#8221;
In a 6-3 decision with Justice Amy Coney-Barrett writing the <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/23pdf/23-411_3dq3.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">majority opinion</a>, the court ruled that the plaintiffs did not have standing to bring the case, CNN <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/26/politics/social-media-disinformation-supreme-court-ruling/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>. The high court did not rule on any of the First Amendment questions raised by the plaintiffs, which included the attorneys general of Missouri and Louisiana along with five conservative social media users.
In her majority opinion, Barrett wrote, “To establish standing, the plaintiffs must demonstrate a substantial risk that, in the near future, they will suffer an injury that is traceable to a government defendant and redressable by the injunction they seek. Because no plaintiff has carried that burden, none has standing to seek a preliminary injunction.”
Barrett acknowledged that there is evidence showing the White House &#8220;played a role&#8221; in moderating content on social media, but she argued that was not enough to justify an injunction. The plaintiffs cited Facebook restricting a Louisiana state representative&#8217;s posts about the COVID vaccine, arguing that the post was targeted because of the Biden administration&#8217;s pressure on the Big Tech company. Barrett, however, wrote in her opinion that there was &#8220;no evidence to support the states&#8217; allegation.&#8221;
Conservative Justice Samuel Alito penned the dissent, writing that the case was “one of the most important free speech cases to reach this Court in years.” Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch joined Alito&#8217;s dissent.
Alito added that the Biden administration&#8217;s actions were &#8220;unconstitutional,&#8221; &#8220;coercive,&#8221; and &#8220;dangerous.&#8221;
“It was blatantly unconstitutional, and the country may come to regret the Court’s failure to say so,” he wrote, adding, “For months, high-ranking Government officials placed unrelenting pressure on Facebook to suppress Americans’ free speech. Because the Court unjustifiably refuses to address this serious threat to the First Amendment, I respectfully dissent.&#8221;
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Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey reacted to the court&#8217;s decision, <a href="https://x.com/AGAndrewBailey/status/1805979926438244769" target="_blank" rel="noopener">writing</a> that the ruling &#8220;does not dispute&#8221; that &#8220;the deep state pressured and coerced social media companies to take down truthful speech simply because it was conservative.&#8221;
&#8220;My rallying cry to disappointed Americans is this: Missouri is not done,&#8221; Bailey added. &#8220;We are going back to the district court to obtain more discovery in order to root out Joe Biden’s vast censorship enterprise once and for all.&#8221;
The Daily Wire is suing the Biden administration in a separate social media censorship case, alleging that the U.S. State Department is engaging with and promoting censorship technology designed to bankrupt domestic media outlets with disfavored political opinions. Last month, a federal judge <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/federal-judge-slaps-down-biden-administrations-attempt-to-dismiss-daily-wire-censorship-lawsuit" target="_blank" rel="noopener">rejected</a> the State Department&#8217;s attempt to get the censorship lawsuit dismissed. The Daily Wire is joined by The Federalist and the state of Texas as plaintiffs in the case.

Supreme Court

Supreme Court Rejects Conservative Challenge To Biden Admin Pressuring Social Media Companies To Remove Content

Amy Coney Barrett

Biden Administration

Courts

Missouri

Politics

Samuel Alito

SCOTUS

Social Media Censorship

White House

Former President Donald Trump seemingly endorsed the idea of placing the Ten Commandments in both public and private schools on Friday after Louisiana Republican Governor Jeff Landry signed a bill into law earlier this week requiring them to be displayed in every public school classroom in that state.
Landry said of the legislation, “If you want to respect the rule of law, you’ve got to start from the original law giver, which was Moses.” He added that the law would &#8220;help bring common sense back to our classrooms.&#8221; Without specifically mentioning Louisiana or its new law, Trump said that the display of the Ten Commandments in schools &#8220;and many other places&#8221; would lead to the &#8220;revival of religion&#8221; in the U.S.
&#8220;I LOVE THE TEN COMMANDMENTS IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS, PRIVATE SCHOOLS, AND MANY OTHER PLACES, FOR THAT MATTER,&#8221; Trump <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/112652932740211401" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a> on Truth Social on Friday morning. &#8220;READ IT — HOW CAN WE, AS A NATION, GO WRONG??? THIS MAY BE, IN FACT, THE FIRST MAJOR STEP IN THE REVIVAL OF RELIGION, WHICH IS DESPERATELY NEEDED, IN OUR COUNTRY. BRING BACK TTC!!! MAGA2024.&#8221;
The new Louisiana law also requires a context statement to be displayed along with the Ten Commandments, which explains the Ten Commandment&#8217;s importance in American public education.
&#8220;Around the year 1688, The New England Primer became the first published American textbook and was the equivalent of a first grade reader. The New England Primer was used in public schools throughout the United States for more than one hundred fifty years to teach Americans to read and contained more than forty questions about the Ten Commandments,&#8221; the context statement says in part.
Critics of the Louisiana law, including the American Civil Liberties Union, quickly condemned it as &#8220;unconstitutional&#8221; and vowed to mount a legal challenge against the Republican-led state. Last week, however, Landry <a href="https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/politics/2024/06/16/tennessee-republican-party-statesmens-dinner-leaders-eye-november-tout-trump-slam-guilty-verdict/73879046007/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> he&#8217;s ready to be sued after signing the bill into law.
Louisiana Republican state Rep. Dodie Horton, who sponsored the bill, said the display of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms is necessary to fight back against the &#8220;junk&#8221; that children are being taught, The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/19/us/louisiana-ten-commandments-classrooms.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>.
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“Given all the junk our children are exposed to in classrooms today, it is imperative that we put the Ten Commandments back in a prominent position,” she said, adding, “It doesn’t preach a certain religion, but it definitely shows what a moral code we all should live by is.”

Donald Trump

Trump Says He Loves ‘The Ten Commandments In Schools’ After Louisiana Requires Their Display In Public Classrooms

Trump Says He Loves 'The Ten Commandments In Schools' After Louisiana Requires Their Display In Public Classrooms

Bible

Elections

Public Schools

The Louisiana governor signed into law legislation that requires a poster-sized display of the Ten Commandments in all public classrooms. 
And the Left absolutely lost its mind. 
The ACLU, who used to stand for free speech but now stands for radical leftism, immediately announced this was unconstitutional and they were going to stand up against it. 
CNN&#8217;s Elie Honig was asked if the display violated the First Amendment. He replied: 
<blockquote>Yes, flagrantly, in my view. If you wanted a perfect example of what the First Amendment prohibits, I think this is it. The First Amendment says Congress, government, shall make no law respecting establishment of religion, meaning state entities can&#8217;t do things that endorse any particular religion or religiosity in general. 
 
And if you look at those 10, there are some — I know one of the defenses is, well, these are themes that are consistent throughout civilized society and throughout religion. Shall not kill, number six, I&#8217;m cheating, because I&#8217;m looking. But you know, don&#8217;t kill, don&#8217;t rob, don&#8217;t steal, that kind of thing. But there are some Commandments that are inherently religious. Observe the Sabbath day. I&#8217;m the only God that you may worship. So, it&#8217;s an inherently religious document.</blockquote>
Here is the problem with this particular argument: The United States is not a fundamentally secular country. 
The First Amendment was designed to guarantee the practice of religion against the federal government. The idea that there is a separation wall between church and state in the sense that religion was never supposed to impact people&#8217;s values in how they vote, or religion could never be promoted in the public square, or religion could never be promoted against irreligion generally by the government is also untrue. There is no historical basis for this. 
The First Amendment specifically says Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. This was never originally supposed to be implemented in the states. It took all the way until the 1940s for the Supreme Court to declare that this was now going to be applied at the state level.
In fact, nine of the 13 colonies had established churches at the time of the Revolutionary War. Connecticut maintained its Congregationalist church, a state-sponsored church, until 1818. New Hampshire had one until 1819. Massachusetts had one until 1833.
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Well past the establishment of the First Amendment, there were states in the United States that established religions. Why? Because the goal here was to stop the federal government from establishing its own generalized religion that would prohibit people at the state level from having their own religions.
The idea that secularism was supposed to predominate in the United States is obviously untrue; none of the Founders believed that. Even the Founders who leaned toward atheism tended to believe religion had an extraordinarily positive effect on the body politic. The promotion of religion generally was considered a good thing by the Founding Fathers.
As President, John Adams wrote <a href="https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-02-02-3102" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a letter</a> to the Massachusetts militia, saying: 
<blockquote>We have no Government armed with Power capable of contending with human Passions unbridled by morality and Religion. Avarice, Ambition, Revenge or Gallantry, would break the strongest Cords of our Constitution as a Whale goes through a Net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government for any other.</blockquote>
George Washington <a href="https://constitutioncenter.org/the-constitution/historic-document-library/detail/george-washington-first-inaugural-address-1789" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> in his first inaugural address: 
<blockquote>The foundations of our national policy will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality … there is no truth more thoroughly established, than that there exists in the economy and course of nature, an indissoluble union between virtue and happiness. </blockquote>
Thomas Jefferson, the guy everyone talks about in terms of coining the phrase “separation between church and state,” <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/jefferson/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">recognized</a> “the moral branch of religion” as “how to live well and worthily in society.”
But for the last several decades, the courts have done something that is completely unprecedented and stupid: They have read the establishment clause and the free exercise clause as being opposed to one another.
The Constitution says “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
There are two ways to read that, and the Supreme Court has read this in the dumbest possible way. One way is that Congress shall not prohibit you from freely exercising a religion. The second way is that Congress shall not establish any religion. And the Court has read them completely separately.
What that&#8217;s done is put them in conflict with one another because it turns out that if you express your religion freely in the public square, then the Supreme Court might say you&#8217;re violating the establishment clause.
But that&#8217;s never how these provisions were meant to be read. They were meant to be read in tandem. The basic idea was that you couldn&#8217;t establish any religion as the official religion of the United States, because in doing so, you would quash the free exercise of people of other religions via compulsion.
That is what the Constitution was designed to prohibit: compulsion in religion.
But there&#8217;s nothing compulsory about a sign on a classroom wall. If there were something compulsory about a sign on a classroom wall, there&#8217;d be all sorts of serious free speech issues in a classroom because it turns out classroom walls are filled with all sorts of stuff.
The argument is made that if I walk into a public school and there is a sign that quotes the Bible in a nondenominational way, it still violates my free speech. And the Ten Commandments are nondenominational because Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all agree that the Ten Commandments were given to Moses, and they agree on the content of the Ten Commandments. 
In 1971, the Supreme Court took up the case Lemon v. Kurtzman. And they came up with an incredibly stupid test to determine whether some sort of government action violated the separation of church and state. They said that any law had to fulfill three conditions. One, it had to have a secular purpose. Two, it had to have a predominantly secular effect. And three, it had to not foster excessive entanglement between government and religion.
When you read that, it is, on its face, nonsensical. It basically doesn&#8217;t set any standard at all because you can make an argument for virtually any religious display that it both violates the Lemon test and also does not violate the Lemon test.
In 1980, when the Supreme Court ruled in Stone v. Graham, there was a law that required classrooms to display the Ten Commandments, and the Supreme Court found that it was unconstitutional because it had no secular legislative purpose. They said the Ten Commandments convey a religious undertone because they include the religious duties of believers worshiping the Lord God alone, avoiding idolatry, not using the Lord&#8217;s name in vain, and observing the Sabbath day. 
But that was based on a fundamental misreading that is enshrined in Lemon, that the government of the United States has to take no position between religion and irreligion, that the government of the United States has no interest in promoting public morality via generalized religion, that the government has to be absolutely agnostic about whether it is promoting the Ten Commandments or whether it is promoting paganism. 
In 2005, there was a similar case about a public display of the Ten Commandments. Justice Antonin Scalia dissented in this case. He <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/03-1693.ZD.html">wrote</a>, “What distinguishes the rule of law from the dictatorship of a shifting Supreme Court majority is the absolutely indispensable requirement that judicial opinions be grounded in consistently applied principle.”
He was ripping the Lemon test. He was saying there&#8217;s no consistently applied principle. He continued:
<blockquote>That is what prevents judges from ruling now this way, now that–thumbs up or thumbs down–as their personal preferences dictate. … the Court acknowledges that the “Establishment Clause doctrine” it purports to be applying “lacks the comfort of categorical absolutes.” What the Court means by this lovely euphemism is that sometimes the Court chooses to decide cases on the principle that government cannot favor religion, and sometimes it does not. …
Besides appealing to the demonstrably false principle that the government cannot favor religion over irreligion, today’s opinion suggests that the posting of the Ten Commandments violates the principle that the government cannot favor one religion over another. That is indeed a valid principle where public aid or assistance to religion is concerned, or where the free exercise of religion is at issue … but it necessarily applies in a more limited sense to public acknowledgment of the Creator. 
If religion in the public forum had to be entirely nondenominational, there could be no religion in the public forum at all. One cannot say the word “God,” or “the Almighty,” one cannot offer public supplication or thanksgiving, without contradicting the beliefs of some people that there are many gods, or that God or the gods pay no attention to human affairs. With respect to public acknowledgment of religious belief, it is entirely clear from our Nation’s historical practices that the Establishment Clause permits this disregard of polytheists and believers in unconcerned deities, just as it permits the disregard of devout atheists.</blockquote>
In other words, every time Joe Biden finishes his speech and says, “God bless our troops,” why isn&#8217;t that an establishment of religion in the same way it would theoretically be an establishment religion to put the Ten Commandments in a public school classroom? 
The answer is because it&#8217;s not establishing religion. Biden isn&#8217;t forcing you to do anything, and neither is the sign on the public school classroom. It is encouraging you to abide by the central fundamental moral premises of the West.
The attempt to remove the Ten Commandments says more about the society than the attempt to replace them. All of Western civilization is based on a merger of Judeo-Christian ethics found in the Old and the New Testaments and Greek reason.
Here’s why the Ten Commandments are important: They take certain fundamental principles and put them beyond the scope of debate, which is good. You don&#8217;t want to live in a society where “thou shalt not kill” is a debatable proposition. How about “honor thy parents”? We&#8217;re now a society that does not honor our parents and scorns our parents as racists and bigots and white supremacist and vestiges of the past.
How about “do not bear false witness”? We live in a society in which you are allowed to bear false witness so long as the political motivations of the person against whom you are bearing the false witness are suspect.
A society that abides by the Ten Commandments is going to be better than a society that does not.
The centralizing philosophy of the United States used to be grounded in Judeo-Christian virtue. That is why it is good to put the Ten Commandments back up on the wall. Not everyone will abide by them, but they will remind people that a functional society has to have a functional philosophy.
And the most functional philosophy over the last several thousand years has sprung from those Ten Commandments.

Ten Commandments Standing In The Desert

Bring Back The Ten Commandments

Ben Shapiro

Bill of Rights

Constitution

First Amendment

Judeo-Christian Values

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Secularism

<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/louisiana" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Louisiana</a> this week became the first state in the country to require that the Ten Commandments are displayed in every public classroom in the state.
Governor Jeff Landry (R) signed the new law on Wednesday during the middle of Pride Month as woke teachers across the country display far-Left LGBT and transgender flags in classrooms.
Left-wing organizations vowed to challenge the new <a href="https://legis.la.gov/legis/ViewDocument.aspx?d=1379435" target="_blank" rel="noopener">law</a> in court while proponents said that displaying the Ten Commandments in classrooms was not just about religion, but &#8220;part of our state and national history, culture, and tradition&#8221;
The Ten Commandments are to be posted in every classroom &#8220;in a large, easily readable font&#8221; at every institution that receives public funding.
The text of the posters must state:
<blockquote>The Ten Commandments 
I AM the LORD thy God. 
Thou shalt have no other gods before me. 
Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven images. 
Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain. 
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 
Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. 
Thou shalt not kill. 
Thou shalt not commit adultery. 
Thou shalt not steal. 
Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. 
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor&#8217;s house.</blockquote>
Included on the posters, the following context statement must be included:
<blockquote>The History of the Ten Commandments in American Public Education 
The Ten Commandments were a prominent part of American public education for almost three centuries. Around the year 1688, The New England Primer became the first published American textbook and was the equivalent of a first grade reader. The New England Primer was used in public schools throughout the United States for more than one hundred fifty years to teach Americans to read and contained more than forty questions about the Ten Commandments. 
The Ten Commandments were also included in public school textbooks published by educator William McGuffey, a noted university president and professor. A version of his famous McGuffey Readers was written in the early 1800s and became one of the most popular textbooks in the history of American education, selling more than one hundred million copies. Copies of the McGuffey Readers are still available today.</blockquote>
Landry said in a statement that the new law helps fulfill the Republican-dominated state&#8217;s &#8220;promise to bring drastic reform to our education system and bring common sense back to our classrooms.&#8221;
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&#8220;A strong education system leads to a strong economy and a strong state,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Our historic Dream Big Package puts the focus back on our kids, and allows Louisiana to follow in the footsteps of our neighbors in the South. I am thankful to the legislature for their commitment to making the education system in Louisiana one that students, parents, and teachers can all be proud of.&#8221;

Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry speaks during CPAC (

Louisiana Becomes First State To Require The Ten Commandments Be Displayed In Classrooms

Education

Jeff Landry

In a major blow to the Biden administration&#8217;s new Title IX guidelines forcing public schools to allow trans-identifying males in girls&#8217; bathrooms and sports, a federal judge on Thursday blocked the rules in four states.
U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty, a Trump appointee, issued a preliminary <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.lawd.205659/gov.uscourts.lawd.205659.53.0.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">injunction</a> against the rules, calling them an &#8220;abuse of power&#8221; by federal agencies and a &#8220;threat to democracy.&#8221;
The injunction blocks the rules in Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, and Idaho. Louisiana sued the administration in April, and the other three states joined the suit.
&#8220;Title IX was written and intended to protect biological women from discrimination,&#8221; Doughty wrote. &#8220;Such purpose makes it difficult to sincerely argue that, at the time of enactment, &#8216;discrimination on the basis of sex&#8217; included gender identity, sex stereotypes, sexual orientation, or sex characteristics. Enacting the changes in the Final Rule would subvert the original purpose of Title IX: protecting biological females from discrimination.&#8221;
Since the rules were announced, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/title-ix-transgender-sports-campus-sexual-assault-77f524b4ed8fcc2aecd5e863b0442bf4" target="_blank" rel="noopener">more</a> than 20 states have joined lawsuits against the administration over its new Title IX rules, which <a href="https://apnews.com/article/title-ix-transgender-bathroom-bans-645b5564ce227a9efe2c05f883609ae8" target="_blank" rel="noopener">appear to conflict</a> with laws in several states restricting trans-identifying male students from playing on girls’ teams or using girls’ facilities.
In April, the Education Department unveiled the new Title IX regulations, which prohibit schools from enforcing blanket bans on trans-identifying males in girls’ sports. The rules are set to take effect in August.
<a href="https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/tix_dis.html">Title IX</a> is the 1972 federal civil rights law prohibiting sex-based discrimination at schools receiving federal funding.
The Biden administration’s new regulations will <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/more-states-file-flurry-of-lawsuits-against-biden-admin-over-transgender-title-ix-rules#">apply</a> to all public K-12 schools, colleges, and universities that receive federal funding, excluding the four states where the rules have been blocked.
The <a href="https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/fact-sheet-us-department-educations-proposed-change-its-title-ix-regulations-students-eligibility-athletic-teams">new rules</a> state that schools that receive federal funding may not ban biological males in girls’ sports wholesale, but they may exclude them on a case-by-case basis.
“Sex-related criteria” at schools that would limit or ban a trans-identifying student from playing on the team of their preferred gender must meet two standards. First, the criteria must be related to an “important educational objective,” and second, the criteria must also “minimize harms” to the trans-identified student.
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Preventing sports-related injuries would be an example of an “important educational objective,” the department noted.
High school girls have been injured playing with trans-identifying males. Last year in North Carolina, a female high school volleyball player <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/news/female-high-school-volleyball-athlete-suffers-serious-head-injury-after-transgender-player-throws-abnormally-fast-ball/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">suffered</a> severe trauma to her head and neck after a trans-identifying male player spiked a volleyball that hit her head.
Another example of an “important educational objective” would be “fairness in competition.”
Female athletes at high schools and colleges in several states have spoken out against competing against biological males.
After Thursday&#8217;s ruling, the Education Department said it is reviewing the judge’s order.
“The Department stands by the final Title IX regulations released in April 2024, and we will continue to fight for every student,” the department <a href="https://apnews.com/article/title-ix-transgender-sports-campus-sexual-assault-77f524b4ed8fcc2aecd5e863b0442bf4" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>.

school bus driver doing safety check

Judge Blocks Biden’s Transgender Title IX Rules In 4 States 

Biden

Department of Education

Gender

Title IX

Transgender

Women

<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/gofundme">GoFundMe</a> contributors quickly raised more than $200,000 for 90-year-old air force <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/veterans">veteran</a> Dillon McCormick after a news anchor made the story of him pushing shopping carts in the hot sun go viral.
Karen Swensen, a former news anchor in New Orleans, was dismayed to encounter McCormick working outside in 90-degree heat in her home state of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/louisiana">Louisiana</a> on Memorial Day. 
His plight encouraged her <a href="https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-usaf-veteran-dillon-mccormick-retire-at-90">to start</a> a GoFundMe, which was later shared by &#8220;Today&#8221; co-host Hoda Kotb on social media. “Let’s all help him,” she urged her 2.5 million Instagram followers.
<blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/C7fhBgip1V0/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14">
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“Mr. McCormick is working to EAT,” the campaign said. “He needs $2500/month to live and says he only gets $1100 from social security. So he must push carts in triple digit heat to make ends meet. He had the kindest smile and greatest attitude. He is grateful for his job and his work ethic speaks for itself.”
“He pushes carts for HOURS. I met regular shoppers who say they see him doing this &#8216;all the time.&#8217; Some, like a 73-year-old man with a limp, get out to help him. Many do double takes,” it said. “He is not afraid of hard work but he&#8217;s tired. And hungry. And frustrated.”
“He is a veteran of the United States Military. It&#8217;s Memorial Day. It&#8217;s hot. Mr. McCormick was born in 1933, making him a part of the Silent Generation. Please, America, let us be his voice. We can do this. No donation is too small. If we could raise even enough for him to retire for a year, it&#8217;s something. Thank you!&#8221;
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Viewers answered the call, reaching the fundraiser’s goal of $200,000 in 24 hours, the GoFundMe update stated.
“Thank you to all who donated to Mr. McCormick&#8217;s fund. Together, we raised more than $220,000 in 24 hours, enough for him to retire!! Should he choose to remain working, it will be just that &#8211; his choice,” it said.
“No longer will the 90-year-old veteran have to push shopping carts in triple digit heat to put food on his table. He won&#8217;t have to walk to work (should he choose to remain); he can Uber instead, or buy a car. He will live out his days in comfort and security. Tomorrow we will begin the process of transferring the funds. What a delightful day awaits for him! God bless all of you and God bless our veterans.”

Shopping cart

Over $200K Raised For Elderly Veteran Pushing Shopping Carts In 90-Degree Heat On Memorial Day

GoFundMe

Social Security

Veterans

Four inmates have escaped from a jail in Amite, Louisiana, including three accused of breaking into a home and killing a father and shooting his 12-year-old daughter.
Two of the escaped men have already been caught, the Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff’s Office <a href="https://www.facebook.com/tpsosheriff/posts/pfbid035ro9P86bdTkJWvmpKqMw3ei7CAaMXS6GKBANUS7QCcZNEmWuotJNQw6hotA3kXwol" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>.
The sheriff’s office said that the four men escaped from the local jail on Sunday evening during their recreation time in the yard. The TPSO said the four men were able to escape through a section of the perimeter fence that was “found to be vulnerable and easily maneuvered in such a way that a small statured body could slide through.”
The four escapees were identified as Omarion Hookfin, 19; Avery Guidry, 19; Jamarcus Cyprian, 20; and Tra&#8217;von Johnson, 21.
Guidry, Hookfin, and Johnson were arrested in 2022 for their alleged roles in a homicide. WWL-TV <a href="https://www.wwltv.com/article/news/crime/two-people-arrested-connected-deadly-home-invasion/289-49acdd29-d389-469d-8c78-69ded4d8c201" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> at the time that the three allegedly broke into a home in Hammond, Louisiana, on September 13, 2022, and shot and killed Donte Perry. The group also allegedly shot Perry’s 12-year-old daughter at least 10 times, the outlet reported.
The fourth escapee, Cyprian, was serving time for armed robbery and weapons charges, the sheriff’s office reported.
On Monday, Chief Jimmy Travis of the TPSO told reporters on Monday that the jail didn’t know the men escaped until a family member of one of the escapees called Sunday afternoon saying Guidry and Johnson had appeared at their home asking for a place to stay.
Johnson and Guidry were found hiding in a dumpster behind a Dollar General and taken into custody, after police received a tip from someone who saw the pair.
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Hookfin and Cyprian are still missing.
“Sheriff [Daniel] Edwards asks anyone with first hand knowledge of any of the four subjects whereabouts to contact 911, OR if you wish to remain anonymous, please call Crime Stoppers of Tangipahoa’s anonymous tip line at 1.800.554.5245 or visit <a href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tangicrimestoppers.com%2F%3Ffbclid%3DIwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR2k2fIt0D68E9vpEY4C_f45cWo-kxmXLYeIzVydVhorXNBIsxPUzUcTBGQ_aem_ARVhLMTRXMyQjR6L6yEJIZGsJrX55UBJQrZKU3OAEeaAv3KDdyMvkDZuLuDD1xwGCDyROvcHppvAZZRWKDdQ4aY4&amp;h=AT1KGloOfXiNjAT2iexpNCH0qcfzx4im8tl3MxCxIMVoJFvFwTXMK5EUL5C0UUYwRtUXvmcrRQ2JZ-pJxkC-HapUG8tva-xEWHgd_28Q0TapM0lvVxcLi1XdeG_diJSvrgbCiQ&amp;__tn__=-UK-R&amp;c%5b0%5d=AT2LSMMCC6hOhULF0Lkat3J5vcGoZCF9eSipbjHuc5EBEJT1BQNMmpZudjPiotE8lAV3MoUO3iJjHO4xwQFhKIj7620hlWIp-PzyLLEUBrq85da-dVnbWYTcVUnVfyZD71-nkFSxZEzSS1NfKHxJBWZB3wTHwvZf2Lzz0kBc1L7tQamSrJccRSQ9OOlrTD921aq6fTm6mQ" target="_blank" rel="noopener">www.tangicrimestoppers.com</a> and click on the P3 Tips icon or Submit A Tip! You may be eligible for a cash reward,” the TPSO said in its initial statement.

Jamarcus Cyprian Mugshot

4 Inmates, Including 3 Accused Of Murder, Escape From Louisiana Jail; 2 Already Captured

Crime

Jail

Murder

<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/louisiana" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Louisiana</a> Republicans have advanced a measure that would criminalize possession without valid prescription of two drugs commonly used for illegal abortions.
The measure (SB 276), which <a href="https://apnews.com/article/abortion-pills-louisiana-legislature-controlled-substance-06ea3e8df86b72b473efe8fc71054ddf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">passed</a> in the state Senate 29-7 and House 63-29 this week, adds both <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/completely-unjustified-medical-journal-retracts-major-studies-critical-of-abortion-pill-ahead-of-supreme-court-clash" target="_blank" rel="noopener">mifepristone and misoprostol</a> to the state&#8217;s list of dangerous controlled substances and creates punishment for coerced abortions. Those two drugs are used to end the life of an unborn child in over half of all recorded abortions.
While medication abortions are already illegal in <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/louisiana" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Louisiana</a>, leftist activists defy the pro-life protections and ship the pills into the state for illicit abortions.
“The purpose of bringing this legislation is certainly not to prevent these drugs from being used for legitimate health care purposes,” Senator Thomas Pressley said, according to the Associated Press. “I am simply trying to put safeguards and guardrails in place to keep bad actors from getting these medications.”
Pressley said he introduced the measure after his sister was slipped abortion pills by her husband without her knowledge.
The legislation <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/22/health/abortion-pills-louisiana-controlled-substance.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">would not</a> make pregnant women illegally in possession of the abortion pills liable for criminal punishment.
Republican Governor Jeff Landry is expected to sign the legislation, which was broadly opposed by Democrats, who claimed it was an attack on health care.
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill <a href="https://x.com/AGLizMurrill/status/1793075287779135973" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> she backed the legislation because of the amount of abortion pills being shipped into Louisiana.
“I support SB 276 and legislation to add Mifepristone and Misoprostol to the Controlled Dangerous Substances list,” she said. “These drugs are increasingly being shipped from outside our state and country to women and girls in our state.”
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The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/how-leftist-networks-flood-red-states-with-risky-abortion-pills-with-no-consequences" target="_blank" rel="noopener">previously reported</a> that a nebulous network of leftist groups are shipping thousands of unregulated foreign abortion pills into conservative states to women seeking to end the lives of their unborn children.
For less than $100, anyone can order abortion drugs such as mifepristone and misoprostol online without a prescription. Age is not verified, nor is a medical professional ever consulted, meaning anyone, including young girls, can easily get their hands on the pills after brief interactions on a shady website.
The Supreme Court <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/supreme-court-hears-arguments-on-allowing-mail-order-abortion-pills" target="_blank" rel="noopener">heard oral arguments</a> earlier this year about whether to reinstate certain FDA restrictions on mifepristone which were relaxed by the Biden administration. Changes in 2016 and 2021 made mifepristone available by mail and allowed the drug to be prescribed by medical providers who are not physicians. 
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/how-leftist-networks-flood-red-states-with-risky-abortion-pills-with-no-consequences" target="_blank" rel="noopener">How A Leftist Network Of Websites Floods Red States With Abortion Pills With No Consequences</a>

Appeals Court Keeps Abortion Pill Mifepristone Available, But With Restrictions

Red State Votes To Make Abortion Pills Controlled Substances As Activists Defy Pro-Life Protections

Abortion

Abortion Drug

Pro-Life Movement

Social Issues

A 16-year-old male gunman was stopped by parishioners and arrested by police officers after he entered a Louisiana Catholic church during Mass on Saturday. The incident occurred during a Mass celebrating a group of children’s first holy communion at St. Mary Magdalen church in Abbeville in southern Louisiana.
No one was injured during the incident.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
USA
An anti Catholic terrorist was arrested after entering a Catholic Church with a rifle, intending to massacre children and families during a First Holy Communion ceremony in Abbeville, Louisiana <a href="https://t.co/5MI36mq20t">pic.twitter.com/5MI36mq20t</a>
&mdash; Catholic Arena (@CatholicArena) <a href="https://twitter.com/CatholicArena/status/1789773607897305169?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 12, 2024</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;This morning, our First Communion ceremony was interrupted when a suspicious person opened the back door,&#8221; St. Mary Magdalen church said in a statement, KGET <a href="https://www.kget.com/national-news/video-parishioners-stop-teen-with-gun-from-entering-louisiana-church/">reported</a>. &#8220;The individual was immediately confronted by parishioners, escorted outside and the police were called.&#8221;
Officers with the Abbeville Police Department apprehended and arrested the teen and then checked inside the church to make sure there was no additional danger.
&#8220;This understandably caused panic. While we realize this was a frightening experience for those in attendance, we are incredibly grateful to both parishioners and police officers for acting quickly to ensure the safety of all,&#8221; the church said.
Multiple law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, are involved in the investigation.
The suspect was questioned at a police station with a parent present and then taken to a hospital behavioral unit to be medically evaluated, the Abbeville Police Department said.
The teen has been charged with “terrorizing” as well as with two counts of possession of a firearm by a juvenile, police said.
The terrifying incident was captured on a church camera that was streaming the Mass online. A man ascends the altar and whispers to the priest, who then asks the parishioners to sit down and join him in prayer and begins reciting Hail Marys. Several men walk around near the front pews, frequently looking towards the back of the church.
Moments later, parishioners can be seen panicking, screaming, and grabbing their small children as police enter the church. The priest continued to pray but was drowned out by the crowd. He and several priests duck behind the altar during the chaos, and altar boys can be seen running across the altar.
&#8220;So guys, just get ahold of your child. Go slowly. We did apprehend a young man. He is in custody. He is in the police&#8217;s custody. Calm down and just get next to your child and go slowly,&#8221; a man can be heard telling the crowd on a microphone.
The church said it will have law enforcement at all upcoming Masses as a precaution.
St. Mary Magdelen church is part of Vermilion Parish and is located about 21 miles southwest of Lafayette.

Catholic eucharistic liturgy.

Teen Gunman Stopped After Entering Louisiana Catholic Church During Mass

Catholic

Catholic Church

Catholicism

Freedom of Religion

Gun Violence

Religion

Religious Freedom

In the late 90&#8217;s, a veteran and father of three named Norman Browning <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13371505/baton-rouge-school-sports-coach-racial-tensions-wealthy-white-residents-city.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">took</a> a job as a volunteer coach at Woodlawn High School in East Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Browning had been educated by Baton Rouge&#8217;s public schools and he wanted to give back to the community. But very quickly, he realized that Woodlawn was very different from the school it used to be.
For one thing, there wasn&#8217;t much discipline. Teachers didn&#8217;t have close relationships with parents, and didn&#8217;t seem particularly interested in doing their jobs. Test scores were abysmal.
Additionally, demographics had shifted dramatically. Students were poorer than they used to be. And there wasn&#8217;t much of the fabled &#8220;diversity&#8221; that we&#8217;re told is so important. More than half of the student body was black. Meanwhile, Baton Rouge and its schools were becoming increasingly violent. (Currently it&#8217;s one of the ten most dangerous cities in the country).
Here&#8217;s just one recent example of a common sight in Baton Rouge schools:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="HS" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fTpgtQHK_G0?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
So there&#8217;s a brawl in the school, and then the parents show up and they get involved in the brawl too. And then a gun turns up, and the cops aren&#8217;t remotely surprised by any of this. This kind of thing has been happening consistently in Baton Rouge for the past decade. As the Daily Mail <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13371505/baton-rouge-school-sports-coach-racial-tensions-wealthy-white-residents-city.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reports</a>, on a single day in 2013, Browning observed &#8220;as many as six separate fights between unruly students.&#8221;
Instead of shaking his head and moving on — which he very easily could have done — Browning decided on a different course of action. As the Daily Mail reports, Browning decided to help lead a breakaway movement to effectively secede from East Baton Rouge parish and incorporate a new city called St. George. This new city would have schools that admit students who actually want to learn, and teachers who want to teach.
<h4><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-1361-the-matt-walsh-show" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Matt Walsh Show</a></h4>
The idea was a longshot. Other movements to incorporate new cities and secede, most notably the effort by Buckhead to secede from Atlanta in Georgia, have <a href="https://www.atlantanewsfirst.com/2023/03/02/buckhead-cityhood-bill-fails-georgia-senate/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">fallen</a> short. That&#8217;s mainly because local politicians — including conservatives — have stood in the way. 
But — after a campaign that took the better part of a decade — in 2019, voters finally approved a ballot initiative to create St. George. What followed were years of legal battles that ended last week, when the Louisiana Supreme Court ruled in a <a href="https://www.lasc.org/opinions/2024/23-1108.C_23-1118.C.OPN.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">4-3 decision</a> that St. George can indeed incorporate. St. George will be a 60-square mile area, with a population of more than 85,000 residents. (For comparison, Baton Rouge is 76 square miles, with a population of more than 200,000). 
That&#8217;ll make St. George one of the largest cities in the state. They&#8217;ll have their own mayor, public services, and city council. Watch:
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A key part of the Louisiana Supreme Court&#8217;s ruling is that, contrary to what Baton Rouge claimed, St. George has the financial means to be self-sustaining. And that&#8217;s not surprising. Taxpayers in the area that&#8217;s now known as St. George <a href="http://stgeorgelouisiana.com/faq/#:~:text=George's%20taxpayers%20provide%20two%2Dthirds,that%20government's%20expense%20in%20return." target="_blank" rel="noopener">pay</a> roughly two-thirds of the total tax revenue of the government of East Baton Rouge. But they receive only about one-third of the government&#8217;s expenses in return. And, despite paying all these taxes, St. George residents haven&#8217;t been <a href="http://stgeorgelouisiana.com/about-us/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">represented</a> in the mayor&#8217;s office in Baton Rouge in modern history.
In other words, St. George is vital for East Baton Rouge&#8217;s economy. And in return for all the tax revenue St. George has generated, Baton Rouge has done basically nothing for St. George. They made their neighborhood more dangerous and their schools even worse. And on top of that, the people of St. George have no real representation in local government. So now East Baton Rouge isn&#8217;t going to get that tax revenue anymore, or at least not anywhere near the same amount. In fact, St. George residents are currently <a href="https://www.wbrz.com/news/st-george-leaders-say-they-want-east-baton-rouge-to-return-residents-tax-dollars" target="_blank" rel="noopener">seeking</a> tens of millions of dollars in back taxes that they&#8217;ve paid to the East Baton Rouge parish government since 2019.
You have to wonder why this isn&#8217;t happening more often. Governments that don&#8217;t provide basic services or representation for their citizens don&#8217;t deserve tax money from their citizens. That&#8217;s a pretty intuitive principle. And there&#8217;s no rule that says you can&#8217;t make your own city if you want to. Quite the opposite. The right of free association is a fundamental part of the constitution. So why isn&#8217;t this more commonplace?
One reason might be that anyone who attempts to incorporate a sane, high-functioning city will immediately be defamed as a racist. Predictably, that&#8217;s been the main reaction from the Left to the incorporation of St. George. There has been no reckoning about the failures of Baton Rouge&#8217;s leadership whatsoever. Here for example is a former president of the NAACP in Baton Rouge, reacting to the ruling of the Louisiana Supreme Court:
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The NAACP guy starts off by saying that some of the people leading the secession movement are on the school board, so they&#8217;re responsible for the failing schools. Apparently these school board members should have used their vast influence in order to prevent brawls from constantly breaking out. They also should have forced the students to be smarter, the teachers to care more about their jobs, and parents to actually parent their children.
Then his argument devolves into accusing everyone in St. George of racism. They didn&#8217;t stay and try to fix East Baton Rouge&#8217;s broken school system, so they must be bigots who just want to get away from black people.
This is one of the stock responses you&#8217;ll hear on the Left in response to the secession of St. George. For example, on Twitter, a &#8220;black activist&#8221; named Samuel Sinyangwe <a href="https://x.com/samswey/status/1785826822388686961" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a>: &#8220;They’re &#8216;seceding&#8217; from a majority-Black city to create a whites-only enclave in Louisiana.&#8221;
Just as a factual matter, what this activist is saying about the new city isn&#8217;t true. It&#8217;s not a &#8220;whites-only enclave&#8221; because there are black people living in it. Specifically, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/new-louisiana-city-st-george-f06a362f9d2e10d7e8b559d4fa50563a" target="_blank" rel="noopener">12%</a> of the population is black, which is roughly the same percentage of black people you&#8217;ll find in Barack Obama&#8217;s preferred island, Martha&#8217;s Vineyard. It also mirrors the overall percentage of black people in the United States at large, which <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/fact-sheet/facts-about-the-us-black-population/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stands</a> at around 14%. In other words, these activists calling St. George a &#8220;whites-only enclave&#8221; are also, in effect, calling the entire country a &#8220;whites-only enclave.&#8221;
Additionally, Woodlawn High School, which I mentioned earlier, is <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodlawn_High_School_(East_Baton_Rouge_Parish,_Louisiana)" target="_blank" rel="noopener">within</a> the limits of the new city of St. George. This school, with a lot of black students attending, is not being abandoned by this new city. The point is to improve its leadership so that there&#8217;s more learning and less fighting.
Of course, if you let these activists talk a little more, it becomes very clear what they&#8217;re really upset about. They&#8217;re not upset about racism or whatever. They know that East Baton Rouge, like so many other cities in this country, is dysfunctional — and no sane person would want to continue funding it with their tax dollars. What bothers these activists is that their source of funding is about to go to zero. Their cash cow is abandoning them. They will have to be productive for once and solve their own problems, without taking other people&#8217;s money and wasting it.
That NAACP president in Baton Rouge eventually gets around to admitting this. Listen:
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&#8220;It&#8217;s pulling a lot of the resources and the tax bases from Baton Rouge. Stuff that is used to keep our city stable. &#8230; This is going to be paid for on the backs of poor black folks.&#8221;
There&#8217;s finally some honesty there. It&#8217;s true that, without St. George, Baton Rouge will probably have a lot of financial problems to deal with. But the people responsible for those problems are not living in St. George. They&#8217;re running Baton Rouge, which is losing population by the day. As the Louisiana Supreme Court <a href="https://www.lasc.org/opinions/2024/23-1108.C_23-1118.C.OPN.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said in its decision</a>: &#8220;Baton Rouge has arguably experienced a windfall by collecting taxes in St. George without returning proportionate money and services.
Incorporation will allow the money paid by St. George citizens to stay in St. George &#8230; The record establishes the population of St. George is increasing. Conversely, the population of Baton Rouge is declining.&#8221;
As St. George creates its new school system and builds out its infrastructure, it&#8217;s very likely that Baton Rouge&#8217;s population will continue to decline. That&#8217;s why, already, there&#8217;s an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJ6TvNk46qI&amp;t=27s" target="_blank" rel="noopener">effort</a> by Baton Rouge activists to get the Louisiana Supreme Court to reconsider its decision.
But that will probably fail, as it should. For one thing, some of the economic success of St. George will almost certainly benefit Baton Rouge in a variety of ways. St. George will keep many more people in the area, and the residents there will still pay for some services provided by the government of East Baton Rouge.
But more importantly, if St. George continues to thrive, it will send a very clear signal to dysfunctional governments all over the country. And that signal is: Stop wasting our tax dollars, or we&#8217;ll leave — and we&#8217;ll take our tax dollars with us. That&#8217;s how our system was always supposed to work. Our country was founded on the principle that governments cannot lawfully tax people without representing them or working for their benefit. And with the secession of St. George from the capital city of Louisiana, for the first time in recent memory, that principle is back. Hopefully there&#8217;s much more to come.

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