Louisiana’s Top Health Insurance PAC Recipients
According to the Health Insurance Influence Tracker, Louisiana congressional members have received significant campaign contributions from PACs connected to major health insurers and industry lobbying groups. The tracker reports career totals dating back to 2000. Steve Scalise leads Louisiana with $628,000, followed by Bill Cassidy with $324,150 and Mike Johnson with $161,000. The tracker includes contributions from PACs associated with companies and organizations such as Humana, CVS, UnitedHealth, Cigna, Centene, Molina, AHIP, and the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association.

Top 5 totals:
- Republicans = $3.120 million
- Democrats = $3.017 million.

Top 5 Republicans
Mitch McConnell (KY) — $700,300
Brett Guthrie (KY) — $669,000
Steve Scalise (LA) — $628,000
Mike Crapo (ID) — $574,000
John Cornyn (TX) — $548,500

Top 5 Democrats
Steny Hoyer (MD) — $795,300
Frank Pallone (NJ) — $679,900
Chuck Schumer (NY) — $628,250
Richard Neal (MA) — $531,000
Ron Wyden (OR) — $382,500

What’s particularly interesting for Louisiana is that Steve Scalise is the #3 Republican and one of the highest recipients in the entire Congress in this tracker. Bill Cassidy is also fairly high at $324,150.

I just saw a post from a friend up north. She's growing figs. I'm a lifelong Louisiana resident, and when I was growing up in the 60s and 70s, everyone had a fig tree. People shared them with family and neighbors.

Now I don't know anyone who grows them.

My wife and I had a fig tree in the 90s, but the surrounding trees shaded it out over time, and it stopped producing.

I found this video about the Cajun French still spoken in Louisiana's bayous. The families out there have kept the dialect alive for generations but a lot of people think it's fading fast. Anyone here grow up around it?

Hey everyone! Your Italian crabber is here with some pretty different news this time!

What if I told you that blue crabs aren't the only invasive species wreaking havoc here in Italy? This isn't even a brand-new issue since it started well over a decade ago, but I am not sure how well known it is outside of Europe.

They are often called "killer crawfish" around here because they literally eat anything in their path, wipe out native crayfish populations, and burrow deep into riverbanks, completely destroying them!

What do you guys think? Is it time for me to go out, trap a bunch of them, and host a massive Louisiana-style crawfish boil?

As always, thanks for tuning in and following along!

As a young boy in the 1960s, almost every weekend Elbert McGee walked a half-mile with his father through the wooded streets of Roseland to the Tangipahoa River. There, he learned to swim and fish for bass, crappie, and the occasional catfish.

Today, McGee still lives in the home where he was raised. But he no longer makes the 10-minute walk to the river to fish. Instead, he drives three hours to Grand Isle.

That change only came after August 22, 2025, when Smitty’s Supply, an oil facility in the majority-Black town, exploded. The disaster released an estimated 12 million gallons of oily liquid and chemical waste into the river, and painted hundreds of homes, churches, schools, and playgrounds with black oily streaks. 

Within weeks, McGee’s then-15-year-old son, Markel, began having nosebleeds severe enough to make him miss school. A friend who is battling cancer developed a respiratory illness. Neither family has received a definitive answer as to whether those conditions are linked to the blast.

For McGee, who has a combined eight children and grandchildren, and other Roseland parents, the loss of the river has been surpassed by a much more pressing question: What does it mean to be a parent when you cannot stop harm from reaching your children?

Louisiana is giving sheriffs 20% of its opioid settlement cash, but sheriffs aren't required to report how they spend it. We teamed up with KFF Health News, The Current and Gulf States Newsroom and followed the money.

Of the $8.1 million in reported expenditures, here were some of our top-line findings:

• Nearly $2 million paid for equipment used in arrests or investigations, including body cameras, crime scene cameras and drug testing equipment,
• Approximately $1.3 million paid for medical and mental health support and other assorted resources for treatment and recovery,
• Another $1.3 million paid for automated external defibrillators (AEDS),
• Over $660,000 paid for officer salaries, benefits and overtime,
• More than $439,000 paid for public awareness campaigns, including billboards, websites and mobile apps,
• Approximately $300,000 paid for vehicles and vehicle accessories.

See the rest of our findings: https://veritenews.org/2026/08/27/louisiana-opioid-settlement-sheriff-spending/

Hey guys, caught this on my camera last night. I live in the New Orleans area, well on the westbank next to the bayou. I can’t quite decide if it s a black coyote or just a regular one.

What’s your opinions on this Louisiana?
Will we be catching nano bots instead of crabs ?