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BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA
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W e d n e s d ay, J u n e 3, 2026
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Landry proposes school budget cut $168 million would fund stipend for teachers BY PATRICK WALL and MEGHAN FRIEDMANN Staff writers
Gov. Jeff Landry called for a nearly $170 million reduction in public school funding Tuesday to pay for $2,000 stipends for Louisiana teachers, who otherwise stood to lose the pay bump they have received the past few years instead of raises. The proposed funding cut, which lawmakers must approve, comes after the Legislature passed a state budget last week that did not include money for the temporary stipends. As a re-
sult, Landry said the money will have to come from the roughly $4 billion allocated for public schools, arguing that school and district leaders can weather the cut by reducing “the waste and the bureaucracy.” “It is time for these school boards to tighten their belt,” Landry said at a news conference at the State Capitol, adding that the savings should go into “teachers’ checks.” In an executive order Tuesday, Landry said he was reducing state funding for K-12 education by $168 million in the coming school year, with the money instead going toward $2,000
stipends for teachers and $1,000 for other school support staff. State education officials estimated that the cut would lower school districts’ state aid by an average of 4% to 5%. Landry said the money will come from funding for schools’ “noninstructional” expenses, adding that “essential student services” such as school security, food services and transportation would not be affected. “This order does not cut money from the classroom,” he said. Two-thirds of the Legislature must
STAFF PHOTO By JAVIER GALLEGOS
Gov. Jeff Landry holds up the Louisiana Constitution while ä See SCHOOL, page 4A speaking during a news conference on Tuesday.
New laws target foreign seafood
3 BR judges removed from AG’s cases Murrill claims potential bias due to lawsuit
BY QUINN COFFMAN Staff writer
authority. Four of them have been signed by the governor. “I really hope that it brings to light the importance of serving and consuming Louisiana seafood,” said Domangue, who comes from a long line of shrimpers in Terrebonne Parish. “We know we don’t have control of what happens with the federal government. We just want Louisiana grocers and restaurants to (buy local seafood).” To urge more federal action on the issue, Domangue co-authored a resolution urging Congress to pass the American Seafood Competitiveness Act. That legislation would expand U.S. Department of Agriculture loans to commercial fishermen and seafood processors, essentially giving the industry access to
Three Black Baton Rouge judges were removed Tuesday from dozens of cases brought by state Attorney General Liz Murrill, who claimed a federal voting rights lawsuit they filed against her suggests they can’t rule fairly. Judge Marilyn Castle, appointed by the state Supreme Court to hear the recusal issue, approved removals in most of the 100 cases flagged by Murrill in March, a spokesperson for the attorney gener- Murrill al said Tuesday. Those cases included prosecutions for Medicaid fraud, cruelty to the infirm and first-degree murder. Murrill sought the removal of state District Judges Donald Johnson, Ronald Johnson and Gail Horne Ray. They sued Gov. Jeff Landry, the state Legislature and Murrill herself, claiming that a new law illegally altered the borders of their judicial districts and violated a consent decree ordered in a 1986 voting rights case. Murrill argues the judges claimed she violated their rights to run as Black candidates and deprived them of due process, which she considered “serious personal allegations.” Murrill contends the lawsuit is “concrete proof of actual bias and prejudice” that renders the judges unable “to conduct fair and impartial proceedings.” Castle agreed, saying the prejudice
ä See SEAFOOD, page 6A
ä See JUDGES, page 4A
Merlin Schaefer holds up Gulf shrimp at Schaefer’s Seafood in Bucktown in New Orleans on Tuesday.
Legislation designed to support state shrimpers BY JOSIE ABUGOV Staff writer
Louisiana will soon see tougher regulations on imported seafood with the passage of a slew of laws designed to support the state’s shrimpers, whose industry has struggled for decades to compete with cheap foreign imports. The new legislation will impact state agencies, seafood retailers and processors. One law, recently signed by Gov. Jeff Landry, expands the authority of the Agriculture Department to destroy seafood that fails to meet the state’s testing requirements. Another law requires retailers — such
“I really hope that it brings to light the importance of serving and consuming Louisiana seafood.” REP. JESSICA DOMANGUE, R-Houma as restaurants and groceries — to keep invoices of their seafood purchases for six months. A third creates penalties for processors and distributors who mix local and imported seafood without labeling the product as such. Rep. Jessica Domangue, R-Houma, authored six seafood-related bills this session, including those requiring invoices and expanding Agriculture Department
STAFF PHOTO By BRETT DUKE
Congress applauds end of ‘weaponization fund’ BY MARK BALLARD
Staff writer
ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By ALLISON ROBBERT
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche testifies before a House committee on Tuesday.
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WASHINGTON — U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson said Tuesday afternoon that President Donald Trump agreed to drop his demands for $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization fund” to allow Republican leadership to shoulder through legislation to pay for deportations until
2030 without any restrictions on the federal officers carrying out immigration laws. “I believe that it is off the table for consideration,” Johnson, R-Benton, told reporters about the fund after GOP leaders spent much of the day grappling with how to secure money for immigration enforcement in a way that Democrats cannot block. Democrats oppose
funding U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection without also adding some controls over the federal officers, such as wearing bodycams and badges and removing their masks. A key hurdle was the proposed fund to set aside $1.776 billion to compensate people who felt they were targeted by
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the Biden Department of Justice. A panel with five members, four of them appointed by the president, would decide who got paid and how much they would receive. Johnson visited Trump on Monday in the White House to discuss the problems the fund, which critics saw as a way to
ä See CONGRESS, page 6A
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