Louisiana becomes first Democratic-run state to end $300-a-week unemployment benefits

Louisiana became the first Democratic-run state to drop out of a federal unemployment program that provided out-of-work Americans with an extra $300 a week in aid.

Gov. John Bel Edwards on Wednesday signed a bill terminating the federal pandemic unemployment programs on July 31 in exchange for raising the state's weekly maximum jobless benefit to $275, beginning in 2022.