Here’s what you may have missed in the latest issue of LaPolitics Weekly, published last week… —HIRING AND FIRING: Legislation to weaken Civil Service protections and shake up the Civil Service Commission is likely to be filed again next year… —MORE SPECIAL SESSIONS?: Along with a potential tax-focused special session, lawmakers may find themselves convening …

The storm that divided Louisiana’s timeline into “pre-Katrina” and “post Katrina” came ashore Aug. 29, 2005.  Katrina made its initial landfall on August 25 along the southeast Florida coast as a Category 1 hurricane. After moving west across south Florida and into the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, it intensified rapidly and attained …

When The Tracker asked me to write this, I was in the middle of a storm cleanup break in the Bourg kitchen of my older sister, with another older sister, my 85-year-old mother, and her 80-year old sister. At 48, I was the youngest person in the room by nearly 20 years.  The four Cajun …

—GAINES PLEDGES PARISH FOCUS: The Democratic Parish Executive Committees will play a lead role as the Democrats try to rebuild the party from the ground up, party Chair Randal Gaines told the Baton Rouge Press Club on Monday. He said the DPECs will serve as liaisons with their communities to ensure the party’s agenda reflects …