LOUISIANA

“Paycheck Protection Act would end the State acting as a bill collector for unions. I’ll lead on this & make it a priority to pass as #LaGov.” – David Vitter/Twitter

“The press release comes from the state Democratic Party, which is in fits over House Bill 418. Indeed, the Democrats are in such a fury that they forgot to explain in their press release what HB418 would do. The hands shake as you look it up to see just how these fiendish Republicans plan to strip hard-working police officers, firefighters and teachers of their First Amendment rights.” – James Gill/Baton Rouge Advocate

“The sponsor of a controversial bill that would undermine public union influence in Baton Rouge pulled the measure from the House floor Tuesday (May 12), just as it was coming up for a vote. The move could be an indication that the bill may not have had the votes to pass.” – NOLA.com

“Louisiana Treasurer John Kennedy said he believes many of the tax bills passed in the state House last week are unconstitutional.” – Monroe News Star

“Senate President John Alario is attempting to craft a complex, short-term fix to Louisiana’s massive budget deficit that would dump the problem of finding a long-term solution in the hands of the governor and Legislature who take office in January.” – Baton Rouge Advocate

“Within the chummy confines of the U.S. Senate, Vitter has emerged as one of the most disliked members,” Politico reports. “The second-term senator’s effort to kill the federal health care contribution, worth several thousand dollars to lawmakers and their staffers, is a big part of it.” – Baton Rouge Business Report

“In what he hopes will be his last year in the Senate, Sen. David Vitter, R-La., is within striking distance of winning his top bipartisan legislative achievement — passage of a bipartisan chemical safety bill years in the making.” – NOLA.com

“The poll, released Tuesday by the Baton Rouge-based Southern Media and Opinion Research, found 31.8 percent of respondents viewed Jindal’s job performance favorably, while Jindal’s negative job rating hit 64.7 percent.” – Baton Rouge Advocate

“Deep-water drilling is set to resume near the site of the catastrophic BP PLC well blowout that killed 11 workers and caused the nation’s largest offshore oil spill five years ago off the coast of Louisiana.” – WWL-TV

“The Louisiana House has agreed to steer an estimated $1.6 million in unclaimed gambling money annually to pay for rape victims’ medical exams.” – Lake Charles American Press

NATIONAL

“So why is it that the parties of the Western Left struggle? Why does it seem that their efforts at governance, enabled mostly by a combination of favorable demographics and a public willing to give them a try after conservative parties run out of political gas, nearly always end in failure? The answer can be found in seven lessons the Left steadfastly refuses to learn.” – Scott McKay/American Spectator

“In 2014, voters rewarded Republicans by allowing them to keep the House and giving them back control of the Senate. Given the countless failures of the Obama administration and the high likelihood that millions of Americans might not be ‘Ready for Hillary,’ Republicans should also be well positioned to win the White House in 2016. But that task might be made more difficult than some suspect — because of the Republicans. Specifically, the two Republicans running the House and Senate.” – Brent Bozell/The Hill

“That was the stark reality Wednesday, as relatives raced to the sides of their injured loved ones and rescue workers and investigators scoured the mangled wreckage of Amtrak Northeast Regional Train 188 in Pennsylvania.” – CNN

“Over the weekend we talked about the Illinois state supreme court decision which effectively terminated any effort to reform the state’s collapsing public worker union pension system and how it was endangering the future stability of the Land of Lincoln. The city of Chicago has the exact same problems, though on a more localized level. With debts in the hundreds of billions of dollars and tax rates which are already driving away businesses and residents alike, the iron grip of the unions on not just the legislature, but the state constitution itself is turning into an albatross around the necks of both the state and the Windy City. How long might it take before the situation goes into complete crisis mode? Perhaps not as long as you might think, since Moody’s has now downgraded the city of Chicago’s bonds to a rating of Slightly Less Valuable Than Gum Wrappers.” – Hot Air

“It is hard to believe that Michelle Obama, raised in a solidly two-parent family in the Chicago middle class, and Barack Obama, a child of relative affluence who was raised in Hawaii and attended prep school, were not welcome in museums that offer frequent free admissions and community outreach — and have for decades.” – Victor Davis Hanson/National Review

“Struggling with the shadows of Iraq, Jeb Bush said Tuesday he would have made a different decision than his brother to invade Iraq in 2003 had he known what he does now about flaws in the nation’s intelligence. But he didn’t say what that decision would have been.” – AP

“Officially, Social Security has enough money to pay all its promised benefits until 2033. But a new study suggests this forecast could be wildly optimistic. And that spells big trouble for future retirees. Every year, the Social Security Administration releases its Trustees Report, which projects the program’s solvency — how much it will take in, how much it will pay out and how long the ‘trust fund’ can cover revenue gaps — over the next 75 years.” – Investors’ Business Daily

“Ms. Geller’s outrage is that she disapproves of political Islam in about the same way Bill Maher does, except that her politics skew right while his go left. Therefore she’s a vicious hatemonger whereas he’s an amusing freethinker, if sometimes a bit outré. Ms. Geller also seems to think that the appropriate response to violent Islamist histrionics is abrasive public derision, a view shared by the late editors of Charlie Hebdo. But so far not many people are je suis-ing Pam Geller, apparently because mocking Muhammad is acceptable only if you’re also mocking Jesus, Moses and Buddha.” – Bret Stephens/WSJ

“Che Guevara became such a campus hero to privileged leftists not because he was a peasant rebel, but because he was one of them, the son of a wealthy family, a bookish asthmatic brat who became the essence of radical chic. The Che of the red t-shirt has always been a myth. The real Che was the great-grandson of one of the richest men on the continent, his father owned a plantation (another ongoing theme among Cuban Communists) and he benefited from family connections on both sides.” – Daniel Greenfield/Front Page Mag

“The root of nearly every free-speech infringement on campuses across the country is that someone—almost always a liberal—has been offended or has sniffed out a potential offense in the making. Then, the silencing campaign begins. The offender must be punished, not just for justice’s sake, but also to send the message to anyone else on campus that should he or she stray off the leftist script, they too might find themselves investigated, harassed, ostracized, or even expelled. If the illiberal left can preemptively silence opposing speakers or opposing groups— such as getting a speech or event canceled, or denying campus recognition for a group—even better.” – Kirsten Powers/Daily Beast