A Democratic state representative from Amite, La. won the Louisiana governor’s seat Saturday night, dethroning a Republican Louisiana political legacy. Prior to this election, no state in the Deep South has had a Democratic governor since Kathleen Blanco left office eight years ago. In fact, a Democrat hasn’t even come within spitting distance of statewide office in Louisiana since 2008, when former U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu won reelection. This past Saturday Edwards came out of nowhere to, historically, take down Republican U.S. Sen. David Vitter, a Republican candidate once seen as unbeatable in a solidly red state. Preliminary election results show Edwards topped Vitter by 12 points, a resounding victory.

After a dramatic security sweep late Sunday marked by the deployment of soldiers in the historic center of the Belgian capital, authorities announced early Monday that 16 people had been arrested in a joint police and military operation to try to head off what the prime minister earlier described as a “serious and imminent” threat of a Paris-style terrorist assault. Belgian security forces conducted 19 raids in the Brussels region on Sunday and three in the southern town of Charleroi, Eric Van der Sijpt, a magistrate and spokesman for the federal prosecutor’s office, said at a late-night news conference. Backed by heavily armed soldiers, the police also sealed off at least two areas of central Brussels, including streets around the city’s medieval central square, the Grand Place, a major tourist attraction.

A white University of Kansas professor is on paid leave after using a racial slur during a class discussion about race. The Lawrence Journal-World reported that the university is investigating a discrimination complaint against Andrea Quenette. The assistant professor of communication studies said that she was notified Friday morning that five people filed a discrimination complaint against her. She requested the leave of absence and the school said she will remain off-campus until the investigation is complete. Quenette used the slur in her Nov. 12 class after a heated university-wide town hall forum on race following the events at the University of Missouri. She also discussed retention rates at KU and the concept of systematic racism. She says she “didn’t intend to offend anyone.”