A starting salary of just over $15 an hour for guards is just one of the obstacles in attracting employees to work at Angola says Corrections Secretary Jimmy LeBlanc. Extreme heat, aging buildings, policy and procedural issues, and the prison’s location in rural West Feliciana are all factors in creating 300 currently unfilled guard positions.

Cut 7 (14) “…help recruit people.”

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District 3 Congressman Clay Higgins says Louisiana has received about $600-million in federal aid, but red tape is slowing the speed with which it gets to those who need to rebuild their lives and businesses. In a letter sent Monday, he asks House & Senate leaders to find a way to get another $400-million for Louisiana’s recovery into a new omnibus funding bill.

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Covington Representative Paul Hollis wants to outlaw citations issued by traffic cameras in Louisiana. He has filed two bills for the session to do just that. One, House Bill 181, would prohibit the splitting of profits, fees, and commissions of traffic fines from a private entity or company.  Hollis says the traffic cameras are a money grab by municipalities and with the economy so dire their use needs to stop.

Cut 15 (09) “…big government.”

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A lucky crawfish was officially pardoned by Lt. Governor Billy Nungesser in Baton Rouge this morning. For the last six years on the first Tuesday after Mardi Gras, the state officially pardons one crustacean to celebrate the mudbug season. Nungesser fondly remembers attending a campaign event in which former Vice President Mike Pence bragged about the ability to pardon a turkey for Thanksgiving.

Cut 10 (12) “…pardoning a turkey.”