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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Poet Wolfe in Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Republicans give $101m to sports arena as myriad needs loom over Louisiana

LSU women's head basketball coach Kim Mulkey watches girls high school basketball players at the NCAA College Basketball Academy, in July, in Memphis, Tenn.
The last-minute line funding renovations at the facility nicknamed the PMAC came at the request of Kim Mulkey, the Louisiana State University women’s basketball team’s head coach. Photograph: George Walker IV/AP

Louisiana lawmakers have faced backlash for using some of their spring legislative session’s final moments not to address some of their state’s myriad needs – but instead to grant the multimillion-dollar wish of the state flagship university’s championship-winning women’s basketball coach.

Poverty, poor education and insufficient healthcare have loomed over Louisiana for decades and have earned the state the country’s lowest rankings in each category, according to the US News and World Report. Louisiana ranks 50th – dead last – in crime and economy, 49th in infrastructure and 46th in education when compared to the rest of the nation, the report says.

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