Legislators are working to fix Louisiana’s massive budget deficit, and only 8 days are left in the special legislative session. Ruston Representative Robert Shadoin says things are moving, but slowly. Shadoin says there will likely be some changes to the House’s approved budget cut bill because those cuts were deeper than expected. He says he didn’t want to vote for the increase in the sales tax but it had to be done…
cut 13 (10) “higher education”
A Financial Aid Working Group met today to make a plan to ensure public high school students comply with a new policy requiring them to apply for financial aid to go to college. Ken Bradford, Assistant Superintendent at the Department of Education, says he is disappointed that only 44% of students are applying for any kind of financial aid….
CUT 9 (12) “graduating seniors”
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…
A new report from Bankrate-dot-com says Louisiana is the 5th worst state for retirement. 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, and residents’ overall well-being.
Bell says the crime rate is an important factor because elderly people are typically targets for crime.