<span style="font-weight: bold; font-family: ‘Lucida Sans’;" class="R~sep~ACopyBody">How many Louisiana delegates voted for Hillary Clinton, and how many for Bernie Sanders in the 2016 Democratic National Convention?</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">During the convention’s roll call last Tuesday, Karen Carter Peterson, a state senator and head of the Louisiana Democratic Party, announced that the state delegation cast 45 votes for Hillary Clinton and 14 votes for Bernie Sanders.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">At the Republican National Convention a week earlier, Jeff Giles, head of the state GOP delegation, announced that the state cast 31 votes for Donald Trump and 15 votes for</span> <span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Ted Cruz.</span>

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<span style="font-weight: bold;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">Online:</span> <span class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">www.democrats.org; www.gop.com.</span>

<span class="R~sep~AHeadBrief">TPP trade agreement signed by 12 nations</span>

<span style="font-weight: bold; font-family: ‘Lucida Sans’;" class="R~sep~ACopyBody">We’ve heard a lot about the Trans-Pacific Partnership. What is the TPP?</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">The Trans-Pacific Partner</span><span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">ship a proposed free-trade agreement between the United States and 11 other Pacific Rim nations — Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">According to a Congressional Research Service report on the TPP, the nations designed the plan “to liberalize trade and investment and establish new rules and disciplines in the region beyond what exists in the World Trade Organization.”</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">“The TPP has slowly evolved from a more limited agreement among four countries concluded in 2006 into</span> <span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">the current 12-country FTA agreement, with the United States joining the negotiations in 2008,” reads the report, released in February. “Japan, the most recent country to participate, joined the negotiations in 2013.”</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">The report notes that proponents of the TPP say the agreement — which “would eventually eliminate all tariffs on manufactured products and most agricultural goods” — will increase trade and investment, boosting the U.S. economy and leading to job growth.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Opponents, the report says, “voice concerns over potential job loss and competition in import-sensitive industries, and how a TPP agreement might limit U.S. ability to regulate in areas such as health, food safety, and the environment, among other concerns.”</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">The “other concerns” include the agreement’s provisions on intellectual property rights, along with the secretive nature of the negotiations.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">The 12 nations signed the agreement earlier this year, but its provisions won’t take effect unless the plan is ratified in each country within two years or, the CRS report notes, unless six countries accounting for 85 percent of the</span> <span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">group’s gross domestic product ratify it after two years.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">The second condition would, the report says, “require both U.S. and Japanese participation.”</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">The United States has yet to ratify the deal, which can be read on the website of the U.S. Trade Representative’s Office, at https://ustr.gov/tpp.</span>

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<span style="font-weight: bold;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">Online:</span> <span class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">https://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/R44278.pdf.</span>

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<span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">The I</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">nform</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">er answers questions from rea</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">ders each Sunday, Monday a</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">nd Wednesday. It is re</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">searched and written by</span> <span style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">Andrew Perzo</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">, an</span> <span style="font-style: italic; font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">American Press</span> <span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">staff wri</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">ter. To ask a question, call</span> <span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">494-409</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">8 and leave voice mail, or ema</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">il informer@americanpress.com.</span>