BATON ROUGE, La. - A Louisiana State Senate employee has been formally reprimanded and suspended for a month without pay because she sent an e-mail to hundreds of government workers that appeared to try to show President Barack Obama as white.

Senate President Joel Chaisson announced the punishment Tuesday for Senate researcher Tammy Crain-Waldrop. She can return to work Jan. 3 and must send a written apology to Senate and House staff and lawmakers. She also will have to attend diversity training.

Crain-Waldrop sent a message that included a doctored photo of Obama with light skin and says, "Do you like him any better now? No? Me neither ..... Then you're not a racist."

Chaisson called the message, which Crain-Waldrop sent by mistake to the Capitol e-mail post office box Nov. 30, "highly inappropriate."