No ruling: Gov. Bobby Jindal is asking a state district judge to throw out a lawsuit that challenges Jindal’s executive order offering protections to people who oppose same-sex marriage. The Associated Press reports Baton Rouge District Court Judge Todd Hernandez heard arguments today about Jindal’s request but did not immediately rule. The executive order prohibits state agencies under Jindal’s control from denying licenses, benefits, contracts or tax deductions in response to actions taken because of someone’s religious belief against same-sex marriage.
Going up: Next fall, NASA will launch its next High Altitude Student Platform in conjunction with the Louisiana Space Consortium in Baton Rouge, and the space agency is looking for student experiments to send to the edge of space. Officials with the Louisiana Space Consortium will help choose the projects. “It’s incredibly rewarding to support the students flying these experiments, many of whom are getting their first real taste of hands-on engineering and science,” Debbie Fairbrother, chief of NASA’s Balloon Program Office, says in a news release. See the full release for more information.
Pointing down: Louisiana businesses should see their workers’ compensation rates decrease in 2016 after the National Council on Compensation Insurance proposed a 2.7% decrease from 2015 costs. Jim Donelon, Louisiana’s insurance commissioner, says the many state workers’ comp carriers use the NCCI numbers to formulate the insurance rates. This decrease continues the cumulative drop of 38% in rates since 2006 and 51% since 1996. Donelon says in a prepared statement that the continued drop in rate is partly due to a decrease in fatal workplace accidents and more companies writing workers comp insurance.
