Many schools and state offices will be closed on Tuesday and Wednesday as arctic cold weather is expected to grip the state and there’s a chance we’ll see snow on Tuesday. The cold air mass will begin moving into the state on Sunday. Long periods of subfreezing temperatures and dangerous wind chills are expected Sunday night through Thursday. LSU Public Health Climatologist Barry Keim says Monday and Tuesday will be very cold days…
The University of New Orleans (UNO) will furlough approximately 290 staff and faculty members as part of ongoing efforts to close a 10-million-dollar budget deficit driven by low enrollment. This follows previous cost-cutting steps, including layoffs, administrative reductions, consolidating five colleges into two, and closing facilities. President Kathy Johnson says the decision was hard but necessary to secure UNO’s future.
To get around the state, Governor Jeff Landry has been flying in a five-point-five-million-dollar airplane. Previous governors used helicopters but according to State Police, the helicopters were 20 years old and difficult to maintain. Public flight records show the single-engine plane traveling between Baton Rouge and Lafayette, near where the governor lives. The plane also made several back-and-forth trips between Baton Rouge and New Orleans after the Bourbon Street terrorist attack. WRKF Capitol Access Reporter Brooke Thorington says the plane was purchased last September….
Cut 10 (07) “…turbo prop plane.”
The state has moved almost 160 homeless people in New Orleans into a transitional shelter. Scott Adams, the chief of staff at GOHSEP, says the sweep is not city-wide.