The chairwoman of the Louisiana House Transportation Committee proposes a one cent sales tax that could generate $7 billion dollars over the next decade to help fund roads and bridges. Michelle Southern reports…

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State Police say a weekend crash in Acadia Parish has left one dead. They say 29-year-old Emily Tramel of Elton was westbound on I-10 when she struck another vehicle from behind. Tramel’s car then ran off the roadway and struck some trees. Tramel, who was unrestrained at the time of the crash, was pronounced dead at the scene. The driver of the other vehicle sustained only minor injuries. The investigation into the crash is ongoing.

This week the state legislature begins public hearings on how to deal with the state’s $1.6 billion budget deficit. Governor Bobby Jindal says the state could raise over half a billion dollars by taking away refunds given to businesses for 12 different taxes. Jindal says it would be wrong to protect these tax credits and then make deeper cuts to higher ed and health care…

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Jindal says he would support raising taxes in one area as long as there are tax cuts to offset the increase.

The USDA says honey production in the United States was up 19 percent from 2013 to 2014 and continues to climb. Thomas Rinderer, head of the USDA’s Baton Rouge Honey Bee Breeding, Genetics and Physiology Research, says the economy of keeping bees has seen the number of commercially kept colonies drop in the last 20 years…

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Rinderer says honeybees are essential to food production throughout the world.