 BATON ROUGE, La. AP As the nation grapples with its past and present, Louisiana lawmakers are having the same uncomfortable conversations happening around the country, about police tactics, excessive force and racial bias. Emotions are spilling out in a special session that was aimed at business recovery from the coronavirus outbreak but that fell in the middle of a national outcry stemming from the death of George Floyd and other African American men and women before him. The talks have spurred tears, anger and tensions in committee hearings as Louisianas black lawmakers seek systemic change in policing. What appears likely to emerge from the session is a task force to make recommendations and an intention to keep legislative focus on the subject. Rep. Jason Hughes, a New Orleans Democrat, spoke to his colleagues after several House committee hearings dealing with issues of policing. Those conversations have painful. Those conversations have been emotional, he said. But those conversations have been deeply necessary. Rep. Ted James, a Baton Rouge Democrat, declared in a hearing Thursday that he had cried more in the Louisiana Capitol across the last week than he had over his nine-year tenure as a lawmaker. James proposed a study of police tactics in the aftermath of Floyds death. Floyd, an African American man, died after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee into the handcuffed mans neck even as he pleaded for air. James could only get support of the House and Governmental Affairs Committee after agreeing to the demands of several white lawmakers that he strip a reference to Floyd and strike out language describing the deaths of black men at the hands of white police officers in recent years. The white lawmakers called the... 