cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/67221665

Louisiana has become the first state to allow law enforcement to intercept and disable drones posing threats to public safety. Gov. Jeff Landry signed the groundbreaking "We Will Act" Act into law on Wednesday, June 18.

Well this is certainly odd timing... 😅

HB261 by Rep. Jack "Jay" Gallé Jr., R-District 104 (St. Tammany Parish) grants specially trained officers the authority to use both kinetic and non-kinetic methods to neutralize drones operating unlawfully near sensitive areas like schools and public events.

??? What that means??

"This law puts Louisiana on the front lines of drone defense," Gov. Landry said. "We are taking bold steps now to protect our people and our skies before tragedy strikes."

Violators face strict penalties, including fines up to $5,000, up to one year in jail, and mandatory forfeiture of the drone. The legislation comes amid growing concerns over unauthorized drone activities near sensitive locations.

Gov. Landry noted this move places Louisiana at the forefront of state-level drone policy, setting a precedent that may influence future legislation across the country.

Must be nice to know you have a governor that loves democracy, freedom, and the United States of America

Yesterday my city held a very rare election, and most people didn't even know about until the last minute. I learned about it on Friday via this same subreddit, but the information posted only covered one of the two candidates in detail.

The brief description given for the other candidate, was also very oddly formatted and difficult to read.

It seemed odd to have such a rare and last minute election quietly scheduled the same day of the No Kings rally and Pride Festival, especially after the vote regarding the millage for the Orleans Parish Sheriff budget was criticized for being scheduled during Jazz fest.

Anyway, I got up early on Saturday a little before 6 am and found an article covering both candidates. I tried to post the article but as soon as I hit submit, the post was already removed.

Weird, I thought maybe somebody already posted the information and I must have missed it. I checked the subreddit and still didn't see it. Odd, so I tried to just post it as a text post with the information and link included, but again, it was removed as soon as I hit submit.

... Very weird, I figured I must have been temporarily suspended from posting or something, but I was still able to comment as usual, and a few hours later, when I posted something about the protest, I had no issues.

I was planning to go vote along with several other people after the No King protest. But by the time the protest was over, people were learning voters were being turned away because the voting locations were saying they ran out of ballots.

I thought that might be disinformation, so I went anyway. Confirmed that yep, I couldn't vote. The best they could offer was allowing me to add my name, phone number, and optionally who I would have voted for if I had been allowed to vote, to a list of names being collected on an unofficial sheet of spare printer paper.

New Orleans voters in rare conservation district election turned away in droves Saturday

Hundreds of New Orleans residents showed up to vote Saturday in the Crescent Soil and Water Conservation District election only to find all the available ballots had already been cast.

The race, between the incumbent, urban farmer Erica “Sage” Johnson of Orleans Parish, and Lloyd Landry IV, a commercial fishing captain from St. Charles Parish, will decide who represents the district covering Orleans, Jefferson and St. Charles parishes.

The district's five-member board works with landowners to manage resources, including water, soil, forests and wildlife. There are 44 districts across the state and they fall under the jurisdiction of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.

The district said ahead of the election that only 300 ballots would be available at each of the eight polling places throughout the three parishes and urged voters to come early.

Still, many arriving at the three voting locations in New Orleans as early as 9 a.m. were surprised to find the available ballots there had already run out.

Nola.com Correction: This story was changed to reflect that the conservation district falls under the Department of Agriculture and Forestry.

This actually makes this even more suspicious because Louisiana just passed a bill to deregulate seafood safety and inspection, and hand oversight of seafood regulation over to this department.

The candidate who is suddenly challenging the incumbent for her seat is a commercial fishing captain.

The incumbent also released a statement last night, addressing the vote, and said she had actually requested more ballots be made available.

The head of city council, who is also one of the top candidates for the upcoming mayoral election (if we're allowed to vote by then) has called for a do-over.

Councilwoman Helena Moreno calls for redo Soil and Water Board election

I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens.

Here are what the official ballots looked like if anyone is interested.

A. They literally could have just given people a laptop, printer access, and a pair of scissors to make more.

B. Using these seems like it creates the risk of people just creating new votes to add on to the total tally. Especially odd given the very sheisty recount that somebody paid for using an alias, after the vote for the sheriff budget, where an official suddenly remembered some extra ballots he had forgotten about in another room.

Hundreds of New Orleans residents showed up to vote Saturday in the Crescent Soil and Water Conservation District election only to find all the available ballots had already been cast.

The race, between the incumbent, urban farmer Erica “Sage” Johnson of Orleans Parish, and Lloyd Landry IV, a commercial fishing captain from St. Charles Parish, will decide who represents the district covering Orleans, Jefferson and St. Charles parishes.

The district's five-member board works with landowners to manage resources, including water, soil, forests and wildlife. There are 44 districts across the state and they fall under the jurisdiction of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.

Interesting... 🤔

SB15 criminalizes the failure of local officials – including sheriffs and other law enforcement officers – to cooperate with federal immigration agencies, with penalties of up to 10 years in prison.

Up to 10 years in prison if you refuse to blindly follow orders? Seems reasonable /s

It also criminalizes acts by everyday Louisiana residents deemed to obstruct or “thwart” federal immigration enforcement efforts. It passed 71-30.

"Thwart" immigration efforts seems like it could be very loosely interpreted to mean anything from intentionally or even unintentionally obstructing or delaying efforts, peacefully protesting or expressing dissent, potentially interpreted to punish immigration lawyers for doing their job.

Also, just pointing out the city of New Orleans was already on that DHS list of jurisdictions in violation of Trump's sanctuary policy

Feels like it would have been less passive aggressive to just @ the city within the actual text of the bill.

“The Orleans Parish Sheriff, who should be trying to get out from under the handcuffs of the consent decree, [is] using that as a shield to avoid the possible implications of refusing to cooperate with ICE,” Morris told committee members.

Also, love this argument (especially as we're watching riots in L.A. and the city of Glendale canceling it's own contract with ICE) bc it essentially seems to be saying take off those old handcuffs, and put on these new much more restrictive handcuffs.

Durr we luv smol gubmint and freedum 🖕