The Louisiana National Guard at Jackson Barracks in New Orleans opens their Boots in the Sand Desert Storm exhibit today. Emelie Gunn has more…
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The state Department of Health and Hospitals will open a water testing lab in Shreveport, which will help speed up the testing process from samples taken in north Louisiana. Jeff Palermo has more on the story…
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The proposed penny increase to the state’s four-cent sales tax easily clears a Senate committee heads to the Senate floor. Jeff Palermo has the story…
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The Louisiana National Guard at Jackson Barracks in New Orleans opens a Desert Storm exhibit today to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the conflict. Louisiana National Guard Historian Rhett Breerwood says 16 of our guard’s units were mobilized and nine were sent to the war zone. He says the Boots in the Sand exhibit honors multiple units, one being the 527th Engineer Battalion out of Bossier City….
A closing date has not been set for the Desert Storm display. Breerwood says the 159th MASH Unit is also being honored in the exhibit. He says they played a significant role during the conflict and they were the last ones to leave.
Breerwood says as visitors tour the exhibit, they can expect to see original equipment, uniforms and pictures taken by soldiers overseas from 1990 to 1991. He says also many enemy weapons captured by Guardsman will be on display.
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The House is expected to take up a bill today that would raise the alcohol tax for the first time since 1948. The author of the measure, Natchitoches Representative Kenny Cox, says every dollar we can raise is important and this tax would generate 27 million dollars a year.
Cox says there are a few legislators against raising the alcohol tax, but many are more willing to increase “sin taxes” than sales or income taxes. He says we can’t keep making drastic cuts to higher education.
The full house is also anticipated to take up a bill to increase the cigarette tax by 22 cents. Cox believes some legislators might be okay with increasing the alcohol tax because it hasn’t been raised since the 40s.
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The Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals opens a new water testing laboratory in Shreveport on Monday. The lab is expected to speed up the time it takes to test samples from drinking water systems in north Louisiana. Currently water samples from the northern part of the state are shipped to Baton Rouge. DHH spokesperson Bob Johannessen says this will be especially helpful when communities are under a boil water advisory…
The Shreveport lab will cost $18,300 initially. However, the lab is expected to save the state even more money each year by eliminating water sample shipping costs. Johannessen says the savings will be significant…
Johannessen also says this project is one of many ways DHH is trying to increase efficiency across the state to benefit Louisiana communities…
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A Senate committee sends to the Senate floor a bill that would raise the state’s four-cent sales tax by a penny. The panel changed the sunset date of the additional penny from 18-months to five years. New Orleans Senator JP Morrell says an 18-month sunset won’t help their current budget problems, because it couldn’t be used for ongoing expenses like higher education…
The extra penny on the state sales tax would go into effect on April 1st and raise 210-million dollars. Morrell says they also need this additional revenue in place long enough so they can perform long-term budget reform..
The House put the 18-month sunset on the additional penny. But Governor John Bel Edwards urged the senate to raise the sunset, because it wouldn’t address the state’s budget needs. Revenue Secretary Kimberly Robinson spoke for the governor..
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Solid pitching and plenty of offense led to an 11-1 victory for the 5th ranked LSU baseball team against Sacramento State on Sunday. Starting pitcher John Valek allowed one run in seven innings and struck out six. The Akron transfer says he felt more comfortable in his second start in an LSU uniform…
LSU blew a three-run lead on Saturday to the Hornets and loss. The Tigers made sure that didn’t happen yesterday. After scoring five runs in the third, LSU kept adding runs in the 5th, 6th and 7th innings. Coach Paul Mainieri liked seeing that…
Mainieri says Valek was the story of the game by throwing strikes and keeping Sac State’s hitters off balance…
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In his final regular season game at the Thomas Assembly Center, senior guard Alex Hamilton messed around and recorded a triple-double to help Louisiana Tech beat Rice 88-69 on Saturday night in front of 55-hundred fans. Hamilton had 25 points. 11 rebounds, and 11 asssits to register the progam’s first triple-double since 1991. Hamilton says to do it on senior night made the accomplishment even sweeter…
By scoring 25 points, Hamilton is now fourth in school history for points scored. Louisiana Tech has now won five of its last six games as they enter the final week of the regular season. Hamilton says they need to stay focused…