| Good Morning, Inclement weather expected Tuesday afternoon has already led to a series of legislative meetings being postponed or cancelled. But one hearing that’s still on the agenda is the Louisiana House investigation into what happened surrounding the 2019 beating death of Ronald Greene at the hands of state troopers. The panel was created by House Speaker Clay Schexnayder to dig into what Gov. John Bel Edwards and State Police brass knew of Greene’s death. At the last hearing prominent Baton Rouge lawyer Lewis Unglesby, who represents Kevin Reeves, the State Police superintendent at the time, revealed that Reeves sat down on March 4 with Schexnayder for a “lengthy” interview that was recorded. Legislators have until Friday to decide whether to challenge the Democratic governor’s veto of the new congressional maps that would guarantee GOP dominance for another decade. Edwards vetoed Senate Bill 5 and House Bill 1 – which were identical and with some tweaks to match the latest U.S. Census Bureau findings – that pretty much recreated similar constituencies that elected five White Republicans to Congress and one Black Democrat for the past 10 years. The veto override session is already called for next week, March 30, a Wednesday. The date, 40th after the most recent session, is set in the state Constitution. A majority of representatives and senators need to say by Friday that the session is unnecessary for it to be called off. Lawmakers are kind of winging it because never before has an override session fallen during the regular annual session. Basically, the plan is to adjourn the current session, convene an override meeting, take a vote, then restart the regular session. How that impacts the timelines in the regular session, which are set off the March 14 opening day, is as up in the air. An 800-page survey by the Louisiana Supreme Court shows that fines and fees account for about 75% of the revenue raised in municipal courts and about half the funding for state district courts. The courts counted $234 million in total revenue last fiscal year. But the legislative effort to move responsibility for funding the state’s court system from defendants to taxpayers has been slowed by generations of individual courts going it alone. The Legislative Auditor's Office is looking for the uncaptured fees being sent to various agencies. About 1,555 entities collect fees of some kind through the courts, including all 64 sheriffs, 18 children’s advocacy agencies, 78 city marshals' offices, 387 justices of the peace, and three quasi-private criminal laboratories. The Department of Children and Family Services is facing skyrocketing caseloads as scores of social service workers quit, hampering Louisiana’s ability to care for its most vulnerable residents at a time of unprecedented need. “We’re drowning,” DCFS Secretary Marketa Garner Walters told lawmakers Thursday. “It’s salary. It’s workload. It’s COVID. It’s the ‘Great Resignation.’ It’s the work itself.” Around 400 positions at DCFS are unfilled, accounting for about 10% of its workforce. That’s more than double the vacancy rate the agency typically runs, Walters said. As always, check throughout the day for the latest Louisiana political news at theadvocate.com/politics or NOLA.com/politics and on Twitter at @MarkBallardCNB, @tegbridges, @samkarlin, @blakepater, @WillSentell. Here are a dozen articles, commentaries and editorials that will catch you up for the week to come. One last item: Thank you to our subscribers. Your support means a great deal to us. If you're not yet a subscriber, we’ve got a special offer you can check out here. – Mark Ballard | 
