Higher pay: Angela O’Byrne, Louisiana’s Small Business Person of the Year, is calling on U.S. policymakers to increase the federal minimum wage to at least $12 by 2020. In a statement, O’Byrne, who is also a runner-up for the National Small Business Person of the Year, says the federal minimum wage has been stagnant for far too long. “Miring full-time workers in poverty makes absolutely no sense from a business perspective,” says O’Byrne, who is president and CEO of the New Orleans-based Perez, APC. “Paying fair wages boosts consumer demand and spending, which drives job creation and forges stronger businesses and communities. Gradually increasing the federal minimum wage to at least $12 by 2020 will create an economic ripple effect benefiting businesses large and small.”
Smoke free: Louisiana is one of 19 states being targeted by an American Cancer Society and CVS Health joint-initiative to provide grants to 125 higher education institutions and expand the number of 100% smoke- and tobacco-free campuses in the United States. ACS and CVS Health announced the three-year, $3.6 million initiative today. The partnership creates the Tobacco-Free Generation Campus Initiative, part of a nationwide effort to have the nation’s first tobacco-free generation, according to a news release. The funding is being offered to colleges and universities with the greatest need for stronger smoke-free policies. In the first year, 25 grants will be awarded and 50 will awarded in the second and third years of the initiative. Others states being targeted included Michigan, New Jersey, Kentucky, Texas and South Carolina, among others.
Stopped: A Louisiana House committee halted a Shreveport lawmaker’s bid to relax the legal definition under which a person wrongfully convicted of murder in Louisiana could receive state compensation. The Associated Press reports the panel struggled with the proposal to rework the definition of “factual innocence” in current compensation law. Those against the measure said it could allow someone who committed, but was not charged with, a serious crime to sue for state money. Democratic Rep. Cedric Glover, D-Shreveport, said not making a change continues to unfairly penalize exonerated inmates by allowing courts to deny money if they committed any offense, including those not tied to a murder. The House criminal justice committee voted 9-6 against the measure today, killing the bill. Glover says he plans to bring it back next year.
