Two different tax increases proposed by Plaquemine Representative Karen St. Germain to help fund road projects will be heard in the House Ways and Means Committee today. Eric Gill reports…
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A bill that would use funds from unclaimed gambling winnings to pay for rape victims forensic medical exams clears House appropriations. Michelle Southern reports…:
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The Baton Rouge Police Department says after their interview Monday with former LSU Tiger La’el Collins, he is still not a suspect in the April 24th murder of Brittany Mills. Jeff Palermo reports…:
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Two different tax increases proposed by Plaquemine Representative Karen St. Germain to help fund road projects will be heard in the House Ways and Means Committee today. President of Louisiana Good Roads and Transportation Association Ken Perret says any effort to increase funding for Louisiana’s roads and bridges is good…
The state currently has a $12 billion backlog of road and bridge projects. HB 777 would raise the state’s gas tax dependent on the price at the pump and HB 778 would increase the state’s sales tax by one percent. Revenue from both bills would pay for road and bridge projects. Perret says a first class transportation system is key for the state’s economic growth…
Cut 5 (07) “products distributed”
Governor Jindal has said he would veto any tax increase that is not accompanied by a tax reduction somewhere else. But Perret sees these measures as an investment that will have a positive return on Louisianians on a daily basis…
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A bill that would use funds from unclaimed gambling winnings to pay for rape victims forensic medical exams clears House appropriations. New Orleans Representative Helena Moreno says under her measure, money from expired winning tickets from casinos and race tracks would go into the crime victim’s reparations fund. Alexandra Stillson is a rape victim.
Stillson says she was raped by two men who broke into her home while she was watching television. She feels like she relives the traumatic experience every time another bill comes in the mail…:
Wade Duty, of the Louisiana Casino Association, says while they don’t oppose the bill on its merits, they don’t approve of the funding mechanism. He says winning money is the property of the gaming establishment until the player cashes the ticket…:
The bill passed without opposition and now heads to the House floor. Moreno says casinos keep about $1.2 million dollars in gambling money that was never claimed by the player. Duty says this money is not the same as unclaimed property…:
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The Baton Rouge Police Department says after their interview Monday with former LSU Tiger La’el Collins, he is still not a suspect in the April 24th murder of Brittney Mills. Corporal Don Coppola says Collins is fully cooperating…:
Cops say Mills was 8 months pregnant when she was gunned down in her home and the baby, Brenton, died a week later. Apparently she and Collins used to have some sort of relationship. Coppola says they may need Collins to stay involved in the investigation…:
Coppola says they are still trying to gather information from people who may know the victim. He says Collins was never considered a suspect…:
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A bill that allows for the dispensing of medicinal marijuana to patients who suffer from certain medical conditions makes it off the Senate floor. New Iberia Senator Fred Mills says they’ve been working hard on this legislation to keep everyone happy…:
Mills says under the proposed law, medical marijuana could only be prescribed by a doctor for someone clinically diagnosed with glaucoma, spastic quadriplegia (kwod-ruh-plee-jee-uh) or suffering symptoms from chemotherapy cancer treatment. He says it would be grown at only one site in the state and dispensed 10 places in non-smokeable form…:
Cut 15 (07) “can’t be inhaled”
The vote count was 22-13 and the measure now heads to the House. Medical marijuana has technically been legal in Louisiana since 1991, but there were never rules put in place for ways to get it in the hands of patients. Mills says the bill 24 years ago was left wide open and no limitations were set…:
Cut 16 (12) “the wild wild west”
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