A proposal to be sponsored by New Orleans Representative Walt Leger would use Gulf oil spill money for possible long-term financing for Louisiana colleges. Eric Gill has more…
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An 8th grade student from Buckeye High School has started an online petition to change the uniform policy in Rapides Parish. Jeff Palermo reports…:
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The state’s workforce commission says Louisiana set an employment record for the month of February. Scott Carwile has the story…
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A proposal to be sponsored by New Orleans Representative Walt Leger would use Gulf oil spill money for possible long-term financing for Louisiana colleges. Leger feels a trust fund should be set up for colleges from recovery money received from the 2010 disaster…
cut 4 (07) “for higher education”
The state is expected to receive billions of dollars from BP to pay for economic damage caused by the spill. Legislators have already dedicated the first $1 billion of that money. Leger’s proposal would target money above that. He says his proposal would fund higher education moving forward…
The state Board of Regents have thrown their support behind Leger’s proposal. Leger says there is no time table on when the BP issue will be resolved, but is confident that the state will be successful…
Cut 6 (06) “investing in our students”
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An 8th grade student from Buckeye High School in Deville has started an online petition to change the uniform policy in Rapides Parish. Currently they are essentially only allowed to wear navy or khaki bottoms and white collared shirts. 14-year-old Brandon Richardson feels the current dress code is far too restrictive…:
The change.org petition states that students should not be told what to wear everyday because they are not able to express themselves. School leaders assert the current policy exists so that students can be easily identified on field trips. But Richardson feels if everyone looks alike it could cause problems in crisis situations…:
Others who support the dress code that’s in place say it puts all students on level playing fields, but Richardson says when it comes to clothing, bullying still exists with uniforms. He says they would like to see the policy changed to one more similar to Rapides’ current “out of uniform” day rules…:
Cut 9 (07) “about what you wear”
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The state department of agriculture and forestry will put traps out to track the invasive asian bug called the Emerald Ash Borer. The beetle was discovered recently in Webster Parish and it kills ash trees. Commissioner Mike Strain says the traps will be placed in high risk areas along the interstate, welcome centers and the Mississippi River delta
Cut 10 (09) “emerald ash borer is”
Strain says the beetle, which is difficult to eradicate, is often transported into an area by infested firewood
Strain says they want to keep this insect from attacking the thousands of Ash trees in the Atchafalaya Basin, the Mississippi River delta and urban areas as well. He says the traps are large, purple sticky boxes that hang from trees…
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The Louisiana Workforce Commission says Louisiana private employers have added 26-thousand jobs over the year based on February employment numbers. The commission’s executive director Curt Eysink says this type of growth with the state’s labor force should continue
The unemployment rate for February was six-point-seven percent but it’s the second straight month it has declined. Eysink says the unemployment rate rose in the second half of 2014 as the state saw a large increase in people looking for jobs
Eysink credits the job growth to a growing chemical industry in Louisiana…
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When the polls come out later today, it’s likely the LSU Tigers will no longer be ranked number one after a wild series to the Wildcats of Kenutcky. LSU could not hold on to a three-run lead in the eighth and ended up losing to Kentucky 12-10 in 11 innings yesterday. Shortstop Alex Bregman says LSU didn’t get a lot of baseball fortune during the three-game series
LSU had a 10-9 lead in the ninth inning, but with two outs, Wildcasts pinch hitter Riley Mahan hit an inside the park home run, when left fielder Jared Foster dove for his liner, missed it and then shortstop Alex Bregman slipped and fell while retrieving the baseball. Coach Paul Mainieri
It’s the first weekend series the Tigers have lost this year as they fall to 5-and-4 in SEC play. Mainieri says they had a chance to win all three games, if not for some strange plays…