A recent study of the housing market in Louisiana finds nearly 45 percent of renters are rent stressed. Matthew Doyle reports…
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The Jindal administration has pegged the shortfall for next year’s budget at one-point-two billion dollars. Jeff Palermo has the story…
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A Slidell woman has been charged with medicaid fraud after she allegedly used her dead sister’s name to receive medical treatment at Slidell Memorial Hospital. Slidell Police detective Daniel Seuzeneu says hospital officials became aware of 26-year-old Diondre Jones’ scam after her false name was entered into the computer
CUT 3 (07) “had been deceased”
Seuzeneau says a bizarre twist to this crime is that Jones was wearing a memorial T-shirt in honor of her deceased sister when a police officer caught up to her in the hospital parking lot….
Seuzeneau says Diondre provided her sister’s name to hospital staff in an attempt to avoid having to pay any medical bills…
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A recent study of the housing market in Louisiana finds nearly 45 percent of renters are rent stressed. Rent stress is defined as paying more than 35 percent of your monthly income in rent. LSU Economist Jim Richardson says in 2000 the number was around 29 percent…
The national average of “rent stressed” renters is around 43 percent. The percentage of rent stressed Louisianians has grown by nearly 15 percentage points since 2000. Richardson says the stress comes in when you have limited resources left over to provide other necessities…
The report did not look at household incomes of rent stressed people. Richardson says now that they have this data, the next step is to determine why this number has risen so high…
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The long-time leader of the LSU alumni association, Charlie Roberts, has resigned from his post as he faces a lawsuit from a former employee, who claims there was financial arrangement to keep their sexual relationship secret. Roberts attorney, Mary Olive Pierson, says the resignation should not be taken as an admission of guilt
Kay Heath is the person who filed the lawsuit against the 78-year-old Roberts and the LSU alumni association. Pierson says a main reason for Roberts resignation is Heath’s public statement she would drop the alumni association as party to the suit when he would resign
CUT 10 (05) “dragged into this”
Heath alleges in the lawsuit she got her job at the alumni association because of her personal relationship with Roberts and a deal was reached that she would receive monthly hush money after she resigned. Pierson says now that Roberts has resigned, he looks forward to telling his side of the story in court
CUT 11 (11) “was supporting her“
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The Jindal administration told lawmakers who sit on the budget committees that the shortfall for next year’s budget is one-point-two billion dollars. Publisher of Lapolitics-dot-com, Jeremy Alford, says the news is not a surprise to legislators and some have already discussed rolling back some tax exemptions as a way to raise revenues
Financing used to balance the budget this year, will not be available for next fiscal year, which is why there’s a huge shortfall. Alford says some lawmakers will look to raise taxes and reduce tax exemptions as a way to close next fiscal year’s budget gap, but Governor Jindal will fight it
Jindal will propose a budget for next fiscal year to lawmakers early in 2015. Alford expects the governor to come up with some creative ways on how to handle this huge shortfall…