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…

cut 13 (10) “past ten years”

The unemployment rate for February was six-point-seven percent but it’s the second straight month it has declined.

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.

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. He 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.