Despite pleas from Louisiana’s Congressional delegation, there is no further Louisiana disaster recovery money in the government funding bill that the U.S. House is set to approve today. Baton Rouge Congressman Garret Graves says it’s disappointing…:

CUT 03(12)      “…other countries.”

Louisiana has already received 600-million federal dollars for the hurricanes that hit in 2020 and 2021. It’s estimated that as much as $300-million more may be needed.

An outage left approximately 10-thousand in New Orleans without power this morning, and Entergy says a bird was the cause. The animal apparently caused a massive short circuit at a power neighborhood power substation. Power was restored by early afternoon. The bird? Didn’t make it.

Today marks two years since Louisiana reported its first positive COVID case. March 9, 2020 was the start of the pandemic here. State Health Officer Dr. Joe Kanter says there have been tremendous challenges and losses over the past 24 months….:

CUT 09(11)      “…people nationwide.”

Overall there have been more than 1.2 million reported cases of COVID-19 in Louisiana. The statewide death toll related to the virus is just over 16,800.

Here’s another side effect of the huge run-up in gasoline prices; a developing shortage of delivery and ride share drivers. A number of drivers for Uber, Lyft, Door Dash and others report they simply don’t make enough money to pay for car insurance, wear & tear on their ride AND $50 to fill up the gas tank.