Governor Bobby Jindal announces a plan to remove Common Core from Louisiana’s public schools and replace it with educational standards and a standardized test developed by Louisiana teachers and parents. But BESE President Chas Roemer says Louisiana had input on Common Core and the early results are encouraging…

cut 14 (05) “deserve comment”

Jindal’s announcement sets the stage for a big battle in the upcoming legislative session.

New Orleans Senator JP Morrell files a bill that would allow public school students in Orleans Parish to be surveyed about what type of behaviors they are involved in — including sexual behavior. He says results of such a review would help with coming up with a sex ed class that would actually be effective…

cut 10 (11) “these days”

Baton Rouge Representative Pat Smith introduced similar legislation last year but it failed after a massive push-back from the Louisiana Family Forum.

The IRS says there are potential refunds of up to $21.4 million dollars available for about 22,000 people in Louisiana who did not file a tax return in 2011. Spokeswoman Lea Crusberg says in cases where a tax return was not filed, the law provides most citizens with a three-year window of opportunity for claiming a refund…

cut 8 (11) “used against that”

Crusberg says the average potential refund in Louisiana is $693.

A new University of Texas Health Science Center study links drinking diet sodas to increasing waistlines in senior citizens. LSU’s Pennington Biomedical Research Center registered dietician, Cathy Champagne says obesity and increasing waistlines are two very complicated subjects…

cut 5 (08) “someone else”

The study suggests that artificial sweeteners could increase weight gain by altering the way the body processes sugar, making people hungrier.