The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in New Orleans, is widely seen as the most conservative federal appeals court in the nation. It handles cases from Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana.

As voting rights legislation meanders through the courts, the 5th Circuit has had a lot to say about the constitutionality of voting rights law.

Madeleine Greenberg is a senior case coordinator with Democracy Docket, a progressive-leaning platform examining voting rights and elections in the courts; she wrote an article examining a rise in voting rights cases before the 5th Circuit and joins us for more. 

Your local government is only as open and accessible as its digital presence — at least that’s the way things seem to work in the 21st century. 

The city-parish of Baton Rouge has been recognized for its digital government accessibility. The Bloomberg Center for Government Excellence recognized the MyBR app for giving people access to an open government. The recognition came as part of Bloomberg’s Sunshine Week, an initiative promoting open government and transparency.

Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome joins the show to tell us about how citizens can use the MyBR app to interact with their government. 

LSU recently got a major boost to its efforts to research clean energy production in the state. The school won $160 million dollars through a grant from the National Science Foundation. The money will go towards new sustainability research and job training for students over the coming decade.

Halle Parker, Coastal Desk reporter, spoke with Dr. Robert Twilley, LSU’s Vice President of research and economic development, about the historically large grant and what it means for the state.

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Today’s episode of Louisiana Considered was hosted by Adam Vos. Our managing producer is Alana Schreiber; our contributing producers are Matt Bloom and Adam Vos; we receive production and technical support from Garrett Pittman and our assistant producer, Aubry Procell.

You can listen to Louisiana Considered Monday through Friday at 12:00 and 7:00 pm. It’s available on Spotify, Google Play, and wherever you get your podcasts. 

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