Sara Cline, Author at The Rapid City Post

FILE- People gather for the start of the Society of Saint Anne's parade on Mardi Gras Day, March 4, 2025 in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)

What to know about Carnival season, Louisiana’s biggest celebration

January 2, 2026

Louisiana is preparing for its biggest celebration, Carnival season. The pre-Lenten period of festivities, which will last 43 days this year and concludes with Mardi Gras, is complete with fancy balls, massive parades, decedent king cake and costumed revelry. The celebration is rooted in Christian and Roman Catholic traditions. It’s marked by feasting, drinking and revelry before Ash Wednesday and the fasting associated with Lent, the Christian season of preparation for Easter. More than a million visitors typically travel to New Orleans to partake in the city’s world-famous celebration. Carnival season will begin on Jan. 6.

A dance at a Louisiana prison gives fathers and daughters a rare moment to reunite

November 29, 2025

The Louisiana State Penitentiary held its first ever ‘Father Daughter Dance’ this month. Prisoners reunited with their daughters, some who hadn’t seen each other in months or years. Prison staff said they hoped the event gave inmates a sense of hope. The organization that hosted the event said it hopes the event was an opportunity to restore family bonds and heal wounds. Videos from the event, featuring inmates and their daughters embracing, went viral on social media earlier this week.

FILE - Students and a member of the Zulu Tramps march to a campus polling place on Election Day at Southern University in Baton Rouge, La., Nov. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)

Black residents worry new Louisiana congressional district could be lost in Supreme Court case

October 14, 2025

Black residents in a newly created Louisiana congressional district fear they could lose their representation under a case being heard before the U.S. Supreme Court. Residents of the 6th Congressional District say they now feel better represented. The district was drawn as part of a lawsuit that alleged Louisiana Republicans had disenfranchised Black voters by drawing just one majority minority district out of six in a state where the population is one-third Black. But opponents of the second Black majority district argue it was the result of an illegal gerrymander based on race. The court hears arguments Wednesday. The court’s decision could have wide-ranging consequences for the Voting Rights Act.

FILE - The campus of Clark Atlanta University is seen April 21, 2019, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Jeff Martin, File)

Historically Black colleges issue lockdown orders, cancel classes after receiving threats

September 11, 2025

At least six historically Black colleges and universities received threats or “potential” threats Thursday, prompting lockdowns and class cancellations. Southern University in Louisiana, Alabama State University, Clark Atlanta University in Georgia, Virginia State University, Hampton University in Virginia and Bethune-Cookman University in Florida all reported threats. Although initial threats have been investigated and lockdowns have since been lifted, some universities have opted to call off classes for the rest of the week or send students home. The abundance of caution comes a day after the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk during an event at a Utah university and a shooting at a Colorado high school.

Retired accountant is hitting a high note: He’s joined Louisiana State University’s marching band

September 8, 2025

At 66 years old, Kent Broussard, is the oldest member of the Louisiana State University marching band. The retired accountant is an LSU freshman and sousaphone player and made his home opener debut with the marching band on Saturday at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge. Broussard’s story of chasing his dreams has gained attention from media outlets across the country and resonated with people of all ages. Broussard trained for months; he ran, lifted weights and marched through his neighborhood in the South Louisiana summer heat to earn a coveted spot on the Grammy-nominated band.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, center, tours "Camp 57," a facility to house immigration detainees at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, La., Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, Pool)

A notorious Louisiana prison was chosen for immigrant detainees to urge self-deportation, Noem says

September 3, 2025

Federal authorities say they’ve deliberately chosen a notorious Louisiana prison to hold immigration detainees as a way to encourage people living illegally in the U.S. to self-deport. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem made the announcement Wednesday. A complex inside the Louisiana State Penitentiary, better known as Angola, will be used to for what Noem said would be some of the “worst of the worst” ICE detainees. Many of Angola’s 6,300 prisoners still work surrounding fields on the penitentiary grounds, picking vegetables by hand under the watch of armed guards on horseback.

FILE - Republican state senator Blake Miguez converses before the swearing in of the Louisiana state legislature in Baton Rouge, La., on Jan. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, Pool, File)

Conservative Louisiana state Sen. Blake Miguez announces bid to run for US Sen. Bill Cassidy’s seat

June 17, 2025

Louisiana state Sen. Blake Miguez, a conservative Republican, has officially launched his bid to run for U.S. Senate in 2026. Miguez served in Louisiana’s House for more than eight years and was elected to the state Senate in 2023. The champion sharpshooter has authored bills in the Statehouse that expand gun rights and Louisiana’s role in immigration enforcement. Miguez is the latest Republican to challenge incumbent GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy, who has been chastised by his party for being one of seven GOP senators who voted to convict President Donald Trump during his 2021 impeachment trial.

FILE - Mifepristone tablets are seen in a Planned Parenthood clinic, July 18, 2024, in Ames, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)

Louisiana lawmakers pass bill targeting out-of-state doctors who prescribe and mail abortion pills

June 10, 2025

Louisiana lawmakers have approved a measure that targets out-of-state doctors and activists who prescribe, sell or provide pregnancy-ending drugs to residents in the reliably red state. Louisiana law already allows women to sue doctors who perform abortions on them. But the bill approved Tuesday expands who can be sued. It includes those out of the state, who may be responsible for an illegal abortion whether that be mailing, prescribing or “coordinating the sale of” pregnancy-ending pills to someone in Louisiana. The legislation further restricts access to pregnancy-ending drugs in a state where abortions are banned with few exceptions. It now heads to Republican Gov. Jeff Landry.

FILE - In this June 29, 2020 file photo, Anti-abortion protesters wait outside the Supreme Court for a decision, in Washington on the Louisiana case, Russo v. June Medical Services LLC. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, file)

Louisiana lawmakers reject adding exceptions for some rape cases to abortion ban

June 3, 2025

Louisiana lawmakers have for the third consecutive year rejected a bill that would have added some rape cases to the narrow list of exceptions to the state’s abortion ban. Two Democrats sided with Republicans on Tuesday in rejecting the bill that would have allowed abortion in cases where the victim is under the age of 17 and impregnated as a result of the sexual offense. Adding exceptions to Louisiana’s near-total abortion ban has been an ongoing battle for advocates in the reliably red state that’s firmly ensconced in the Bible Belt. Tuesday’s legislative committee hearing was emotional and filled with religious themes. The measure failed on a 3-9 vote.

This image from video taken by Huntsville Police Department on May 26, 2025, shows the arrest of two New Orleans inmates who were on the run since their May 16, 2025, jailbreak. (Huntsville Police Department via AP)

New Orleans jail escapees caught following car chase in Texas; 2 inmates still on the run

May 27, 2025

Police say one of the New Orleans jail escapees who was captured on Monday was found with the help of an anonymous tip from a concerned citizen. Two others were also arrested following a car chase in Texas on Monday. Twenty-six-year-old Lenton Vanburen Jr. was found Monday evening sitting on a bench near a department store in Baton Rouge. It’s been nearly two weeks since Vanburen and nine others men broke out of a New Orleans jail after slipping out through a hole behind a toilet, scaling a fence and running for freedom. As of Tuesday morning, two of the escapees remain on the run.

FILE - Gov. Jeff Landry speaks during the start of the special session in the House Chamber on Monday, Jan. 15, 2024, in Baton Rouge, La. (Michael Johnson/The Advocate via AP, Pool,File)

Louisiana Republicans reject bill that would address split jury verdicts, a Jim Crow-era practice

May 21, 2025

A Louisiana bill that would have carved out a path for incarcerated people convicted by now-banned split juries to ask for a new trial has failed. The GOP-dominated state Senate voted against the bill along party lines. The bill would have added non-unanimous jury verdicts to a list of claims for which an inmate can seek a retrial. An estimated 1,000 people behind bars in the Deep South state were convicted by non-unanimous juries, a practice rooted in racism from the era of “Jim Crow” laws and deemed unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2020.

Sara Cline.