Although the state faces a $750 million dollar budget deficit, state employees in four departments are getting raises that former Governor Bobby Jindal okayed just before leaving office. LaPolitics-dot-com publisher Jeremy Alford says these pay hikes really add up…:
CUT 12 (05) “pay raises”
Raises were granted in the Department of Transportation, the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, the Department of Environmental Quality, and the Coastal Protection Restoration Authority.

LSU says if they take a 65-million dollar budget cut, it will mean the laying off of faculty and raising student fees. President and Chancellor F. King Alexander said they were told to prepare scenarios for a 32% budget cut to its statewide operations, and the reductions would be devastating. If the legislature doesn’t intervene in the upcoming legislative session on other ways to fill the budget hole, higher ed was told the state would have to cut $131 million from the state’s colleges and universities.

The state Fire Marshal’s Office says a family of four is on life support following a Sunday fire in West Monroe. Deputy Chief Brant Thompson says 26-year-old Jeremiah Owojori (oh-wa-jor-ee), his 24-year-old pregnant wife Ashley, and their two sons, aged 5-years and 7-months are clinging to life. He says they believe the fire started in the attic…:
CUT 9 (11) “to this fire”
He says the family was unable to escape the blaze and are all struggling to stay alive.

People who were sentenced to life for crimes they committed as juveniles now must be given the chance at parole. The US Supreme court ruled on a case out of Baton Rouge today. Loyola law professor Dane Ciolino says Henry Montgomery, convicted at 17 in 1963, will now get his case back in Louisiana and likely before a parole board hearing…:
CUT 7 (10) “ultimately”