Giving it a try: Louisiana lawmakers have agreed to expand the state’s Right to Try Act, which gives terminally-ill patients access to experimental drugs and treatments. The Associated Press reports the act passed in 2014 and allows terminally-ill patients with permission from their doctors to use treatment methods that aren’t approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Insurers don’t have to cover the costs. A bill that won final passage Wednesday with a 38-0 Senate vote will include robotic devices that help people unable to talk or write in the act’s provisions. The expansion proposal by Rep. Julie Stokes, R-Kenner, heads next to Gov. John Bel Edwards’ desk. It is championed by beloved former New Orleans Saints player Steve Gleason, who has ALS and uses similar technology to speak.
Status quo: Louisiana senators have refused to make it easier for voters to recall Louisiana’s elected officials. The Associated Press reports the Senate and Governmental Affairs Committee deadlocked Wednesday on a proposal from Rep. Paul Hollis, R-Covington, to change rules for recall elections. The vote was 3-3, stalling the House-backed measure. New Orleans Sen. Karen Carter Peterson, the Democrat who chairs the committee, cast the tie vote to keep the bill bottled up. Under current law, a recall petition must be signed by one-third of registered voters within 180 days to hold an election on whether to recall an elected official. In districts with fewer than 1,000 registered voters, the petition requires signatures from 40 of them. Hollis’ bill would have lowered the signature threshold in larger districts.
Adding on: Goodrich Petroleum Corp. says it has entered into an agreement to acquire an additional 2,200 net acres next to its existing acreage in the Haynesville Shale. Goodrich says it will earn the acreage, located in Desoto Parish, through the drilling and completion of wells. There will be no upfront cash considerations. Goodrich currently owns rights to approximately 25,000 net acres in the Haynesville Shale. The company also says it will swap a portion of its undeveloped acreage in Bethany-Longstreet in northwest Louisiana with another operator. Read more.
