Louisiana Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon announces his support for legislation to end what’s been known as the “Patriot Penalty.” Deployed military members who cancel or allow their auto insurance to lapse are forced to pay higher auto rates when they return home to renew their insurance because there was a gap in their coverage. Donelon says that’s because current law allows for insurance companies to charge a higher premium to anyone with a gap in coverage.
Cut 6 (08) “gap in coverage.”
Alexandria Senator Jay Luneau has filed a bill to end the practice of penalizing deployed soldiers when they return home.

Wade Berzas is heading home after spending 52 days in the hospital. He’s the lone survivor of a December plane crash in Lafayette Parish that killed five people, including sports journalist Carley McCord.

A state audit alleges a former fire chief in Webster Parish, Billy Raspberry, Jr. overpaid himself during a two-year period…
Cut 2 (31) “…I’m Kevin Barnhart”

A five-thousand-dollar reward is being offered for information that leads to an arrest and conviction of the person that fatally shot an endangered whooping crane in Jefferson Davis Parish in November. L-D-W-F spokesperson Adam Einck says there are only an estimated 76 of these large birds in Louisiana…
cut 15 (09) “…admire it”