Louisiana

Five days after it first plowed into southwest Texas as a category 4 hurricane, Tropical Storm Harvey has made second landfall west of Cameron on the border between Texas and Louisiana, early Wednesday according to the National Hurricane Center. The storm, which has already pummeled the city of Houston with more than 50 inches of rain – a new record for the contiguous US, according to the Wall Street Journal – has left at least 18 dead, including two Houston police officers, and forced tens of thousands of people from their homes.

A six-week-old baby from Louisiana was found dead just ten days after a hospital nurse forcibly gave the infant eight “routine” vaccines against the mother’s instincts. Aysia Hope Clark was born over one month prematurely when doctors advised her mother that her baby daughter should be given eight doses of vaccinations into her tiny body. Vactruth.com reports: Ten days later, which is a critical time children die from vaccine-related injuries, Aysia stopped breathing, her heart stopped beating and she died while sleeping on her mother’s arm.

Via The Hayride,

HB 1035, a bill by Rep. Valarie Hodges that would have mandated that schoolchildren in Louisiana be taught the Declaration of Independence, sailed through the House Education Committee with a 6-2 vote. But Wednesday, when the bill reached the floor of the House, it had a different fate – amid a torrent of squabbling, Hodges returned the bill to the calendar and it’s likely finished for the session.

The Louisiana State Capitol, tumescently democratic (Burkomaster/Shutterstock)

I’m totally serious: Louisiana is a great state:

During a debate about a bill to regulate strip clubs, a state representative proposed an amendment — in jest, he says — that the strippers should be youthful and thin.

We have old friends visiting this week from Europe. I encouraged them to go to Rosedown Plantation, in St. Francisville, which is one of the grandest and best preserved plantations in the South. It really is a wonder to behold. But Julie and I also suggested that they get the other side of the story by going to Whitney Plantation, down the river in St. John the Baptist Parish.