A senate committee said no to an Edwards administration plan to close a Medicaid program that provides mental health services to over 47-thousand children. The program was on the chopping block as part of the budget cuts approved in last month’s special session. Baton Rouge Senator Regina Barrow says there must be other ways to cut spending without eliminating such a vital service…
cut 11 (12) “….to govern”
With the program now restored, L-D-H still has to make 10-million dollars in cuts.

A federal judge has blocked a state law that requires a birth certificate in order to get married in Louisiana. A suit was filed on behalf of a man who didn’t have proof of birth because he was born in an Indonesian camp, but has lived in Louisiana his entire life.

Louisiana could lose 3.6 billion dollars in homes, businesses, and infrastructure over the next 50 years if the state doesn’t follow through with its coastal protection and restoration master plan. That’s according to Researcher Stephen Barnes with the LSU Economics and Policy Research Group…:
Cut 6 (09) “stake here”
The study has determined economic losses between 390-million to 600-million dollars for cities like Lafayette and Baton Rouge if nothing is done.

The widow of one of the officers who was killed last summer in Baton Rouge during an ambush has given birth to their son. Matthew Gerald was one of the officers fatally shot in the attack and his wife, Dechia Gerald, gave birth to Falyn Matthew Gerald. She’s called Baby Buttons, because other officers called Matthew “Buttons.”