According to a new report from Bankrate-dot-com, Louisiana is the 5th worst state for retirement. Halen Doughty has the story…
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Education leaders are working on a plan to make sure more students apply for financial assistance to attend a two-year or four year college. Michelle Southern has the story…
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Louisiana is the 5th worst state for retirement, according to a new report from Bankrate-dot-com. Claes (Claus) Bell, a senior analyst at Bankrate, says they examined several key factors to determine the quality of life in retirement, including cost of living, taxes, healthcare, crime, and residents’ overall well-being.
Bell says the crime rate is an important factor because elderly people are typically targets for crime. Weather was also considered in the study.
While people may think of beaches when they think retirement, only one of the 10 best states touches a coast, but 9 of the 12 worst states are coastal. It’s not all bad news for Louisiana. Bell says retirees who live on a fixed income may find Louisiana a good state to spend their golden years….
Wyoming is the best state for retirement, and New York is the worst. West Virginia, Oregon and Arkansas also finished behind Louisiana.
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A Baton Rouge man has been arrested after an unrelated DNA test links him to a 1996 rape case. Baton Rouge Police Sgt. Don Coppola says 20 years ago, a 17-year-old girl was walking down the street and asked now 59-year-old Jerry Williams for a ride, where he then took her to his house and raped her. He says during the initial investigation, detectives had trouble re-contacting the victim so the case went unsolved…
Coppola says Williams was arrested back in December for one count of domestic abuse battery when his DNA test was conducted. He says Williams was questioned about the rape in 1996 but investigators weren’t able to follow up with the victim…
Coppola says Williams was booked on the charge of second degree rape.
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A Financial Aid Working Group is meeting today to formulate a plan to make sure public high school students comply with a new policy requiring them to apply for assistance to go to college. Department of Education’s Assistant Superintendent Ken Bradford says only 44% of students are applying for any kind of financial aid, which is disappointing….
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Bradford says 55% of the new jobs in Louisiana will require at least one to two years of specialized education or training. He says many families don’t realize that, even if a student doesn’t get a scholarship, there are other options out there that help pay for education after high school.
Bradford says, in two years, students will have to either fill out a financial aid form, apply for TOPS or sign a waiver allowing them to opt out in order to get their diploma. He says the Financial Aid Working Group is also discussing how schools can be more of assistance in helping students get financial aid.
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With just 8 days left in the special legislative session, legislators are slowly working to fix Louisiana’s massive budget deficit. Ruston Representative Robert Shadoin says things are moving, but sometimes it seems to be at a glacial pace. He believes in the coming days there will be increased communication between the Senate and the House and bills…
Shadoin says there will likely be some changes to the House’s budget cut bill that was passed because those cuts went deeper than anticipated. He says he didn’t want to vote for the increase in the sales tax but it had to be done…
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Monroe Representative Katrina Jackson is the author of the legislation that increases the state’s sales tax by another penny. But Jackson says they still need another 175 million to 250 million dollars to close the deficit. And she says there are still numerous revenue raising bills that can be passed by the house.
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