Cancer: Former Gov. Kathleen Blanco is undergoing treatment for cancer in her liver, she announced in a letter released to media outlets on Sunday, describing it as a “fight for my own life, one that will be difficult to win.” No treatments have yet been identified to actually cure the type of melanoma the former Democratic governor says she has been diagnosed as having. Blanco was Louisiana’s first and only female governor, serving from 2004 to 2008, choosing not to run for re-election after criticism of her performance during and after hurricanes Katrina and Rita. She served 24 years in various elected offices. Read more.
Raising concerns: Attorney General Jeff Landry’s office is raising “concerns” that Gov. John Bel Edwards cannot legally sidestep lawmakers to enter into $15.4 billion in Medicaid contracts through an emergency process. Sixteen Republican state senators asked Landry to determine if Edwards can use emergency provisions to allow five managed-care companies to continue providing services for 1.5 million Medicaid patients. The guidance issued to lawmakers by the GOP attorney general suggests that if the Democratic governor’s administration continues services by invoking the emergency statute, the contracts could be subject to legal dispute. Read more.
Final judgement: Senior Federal Judge James Brady, who oversaw the final years of the long-running East Baton Rouge Parish school desegregation case died Saturday at a Baton Rouge hospital following a brief illness. He was 73. Brady’s death occurred days before he was to preside over the trial of a private investigator accused of trying to illegally get Donald Trump’s tax returns during the 2016 presidential campaign, court officials say. It was not immediately clear what would happen with the trial following Brady’s death. Brady was nominated to the bench in 1999 by then-President Bill Clinton and assumed senior status in December 2013. Senior status is a form of semi-retirement for federal judges, who get lifetime appointments. Read more.
