Two medical marijuana bills are getting closer to final passage. Matt Doyle has the story.
Western Global Airlines will invest three million dollars in a new facility in Shreveport, which could lead to 170 direct jobs. Louisiana Economic Development estimates that an additional 308 new jobs will be created by the facility run by the Florida based company. Secretary Don Pierson says there’s quite a few reasons why the shipping company, which conducts business with UPS and FedEx, chose the north Louisiana location.
37,000 letters are being mailed out to recipients of four Medicaid programs that reads “Because of possible budget cuts, these programs may end as of July 1, 2018.” 20,000 of those recipients are nursing home residents who could be thrown out as a result. Commissioner of Administration Jay Dardenne says after multiple failed attempts to fund the programs, people need to start preparing for the worst.
But many Republicans are balking at the release of those letters, saying they amount to a political stunt. Haughton Representative Dodie Horton, who voted for the House spending plan that included the Medicaid cuts, says the panic isn’t justified because the process isn’t over. She accused Governor John Bel Edwards of playing politics and using the letters as a scare tactic targeting the state’s most vulnerable.
Dardenne hit back at House Republicans who voted for the budget, yet criticized the mailing of the letters, saying this is what the deep budget cuts that fiscal hawks advocate for look like.