Monuments to the Confederate era disappear. Budget battles. A popular congressman is nearly murdered. LIGO scientists help make a major discovery.
Here is a look at those and other top stories in Louisiana for 2017, as selected by The Associated Press:
- Landmarks removed: Century-old landmarks, three honoring Confederate leaders and one heralding white supremacy, disappeared from New Orleans’ landscape. Proposed by Mayor Mitch Landrieu and approved by the City Council, the removals sparked two years of emotional debates, state and federal court battles and tense confrontations at monument sites.
- The economy brightens but budget battle loom: Lawmakers failed to pass a budget during a regular session for the first time since 2000, forcing legislators into a special session to cobble together a deal on a more than $28 billion spending plan. The plan will keep most agencies free of cuts and fully fund the TOPS free college tuition program.
- Cosmic crash: Astronomers at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory in Livingston Parish and Washington state discovered the crash of two neutron stars—collapsed cores of a large star and the smallest, densest stars known to exist.
- Scalise shot: Louisiana Congressman Steve Scalise is back at work after a gunman sprayed fire at a baseball practice and left the lawmaker clinging to life. The 51-year-old Republican and four others were wounded in the June 14 shooting in Alexandria, Virginia, where members of the GOP were practicing for their annual face off against Democratic lawmakers.
