Bill Cassidy

Baton Rouge has been selected to receive federal funding through the Justice Department's Model Cities Initiative, a $300 million competitive grant program aimed at addressing police staffing shortages. Jackson, Mississippi; Jacksonville, Florida; and St. Louis, Missouri, were also chosen. Exact grant amounts have not yet been announced by Attorney General Todd Blanche.

Funds can go toward hiring, training and retention, equipment and technology such as license plate readers and drones, and mental health and substance use services. U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy helped East Baton Rouge Parish leaders apply. Some eligible cities, including Houston, declined funding over concerns about conditions tied to administration policies. Applications were open to jurisdictions over 100,000 people, due by September 1.

Louisiana heads into Nov. 3 elections for one U.S. Senate seat and several House seats under unusual circumstances. The U.S. Supreme Court's June 29 ruling in Callais v. Louisiana, which found the state's 6th Congressional District unconstitutionally gerrymandered, forced Gov. Jeff Landry to order a new open primary even after some ballots had already been cast, confusing voters about district lines. The Senate race to succeed Bill Cassidy, between Rep. Julia Letlow and Democrat Jamie Davis, will be decided outright since a May primary already occurred; Cassidy was eliminated after being targeted by state Republicans over his impeachment vote. House races featuring incumbents are expected to avoid runoffs, but open seats in the 5th and 6th Districts likely head to a December runoff. Early voting has surged, particularly among Black voters.

Sen. Bill Cassidy questioned Dr. Heidi Overton, President Trump's nominee to lead the FDA, during a Senate HELP Committee hearing Thursday, seeking assurances she would defend vaccine science against political pressure. Overton, a White House domestic policy aide, contradicted Trump's claim that the MMR vaccine could be "quite lethal," calling the shot "our best tool" against the current measles surge.

However, Overton declined to directly criticize several of Trump's other health-related statements, including claims linking Tylenol to autism, assertions about U.S. drug pricing, and comments equating birth control with abortion. She also would not say whether health care is a human right. Cassidy, a physician and vaccine researcher before entering politics, pressed her to commit to "radical honesty" and resisting ideological interference in FDA product approvals. Sen. Maggie Hassan pushed further, noting Overton avoided saying the president was simply wrong on vaccine safety. The committee will vote at a later hearing on whether to advance Overton's nomination to the full Senate.

Montana has enacted the nation's most expansive "right-to-try" law, letting any resident—not just terminally ill patients—access experimental drugs that have only completed Phase I trials showing basic safety, without proven effectiveness. This breaks sharply from federal right-to-try rules, including those signed during Trump's first term, which require patients to have exhausted approved treatments.

Biotech startups see Montana as a workaround to the FDA's costly approval process. Infinita, a company tied to a deregulated zone in Honduras and led by CEO Niklas Anzinger, runs the only review board approving treatments so far, charging companies a application fee; it approved its first treatment last month. Critics, including patient advocates, warn of conflicts of interest and unproven claims reaching vulnerable patients. The program's future depends on whether the FDA intervenes—an open question, especially with HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has touted his own use of unapproved treatments, expressing support for expanded access. FDA officials met with industry and patient groups in June but gave no commitment on enforcement.