Override rejected: Louisiana lawmakers won’t be holding a veto session this month to consider overriding Gov. John Bel Edwards’ rejections of eight bills from their regular legislative session. The Associated Press reports both the House and Senate overwhelmingly voted to cancel the veto session, according to tallies released today. Thirty-eight of Louisiana’s 39 state senators indicated a desire to cancel the session, and 76 of 103 current House members declared the same. Lawmakers must turn in another round of ballots by July 21 weighing in on a separate veto session to consider overriding the governor’s line-item rejections of provisions and projects in the budget bills from the June special legislative session.
In the race: The Oct. 14 state treasurer’s race has attracted six contenders. In addition to the candidates who qualified on Wednesday, the first day of qualifying for the race, Republican Terry Hughes of Lafayette has joined the race. As of 2:50 p.m. today, six candidates had signed up to run for the seat former treasurer John Kennedy vacated earlier this year. Kennedy left after winning election to the U.S. Senate. In other races, no other candidates have qualified for the Louisiana Public Service Commission District 2 race, which had just three contenders as of 2:53 p.m. today. Qualifying for the Oct. 14 ballot ends at 4:30 p.m. See a full list of qualifying candidates.
In reverse: After rising by two last week, Louisiana’s rig count is back down to 67. The latest tally from Houston-based Baker Hughes shows Louisiana lost two rigs this week. Last week the state’s rig count rose to 69 after being stagnant for two weeks. One year ago Louisiana had 46 rigs. Nationally, the rig count remains unchanged at 952. A year ago there were 447 active rigs. Baker Hughes says 765 rigs sought oil and 187 explored for natural gas this week. The U.S. rig count peaked at 4,530 in 1981 and bottomed out in May of 2016 at 404, The Associated Press says.
