Republican US Senator David Vitter hopes President Barack Obama calls for an expanded US military effort against the Islamic State terrorist group. The President will spell out a plan tonight on how to deal with ISIS, who has been responsible for numerous killings and beheadings. Vitter says the terrorists in Iraq and Syria are a threat to our security and values…

cut 12 (09) “ISIS threat”

Vitter says he wants to hear a plan from the President tonight that’s focused on improved national security.

Police in Alexandria say a teenager from Texas is charged in the bomb threats that were called in to Rapides Parish Schools yesterday. Lt. Bruce Fairbanks says they do know that 17-year-old Reuben David Byon is from the area but he has been living in Texas for a period of time. Fairbanks says the penalty for calling in fake bomb threats is stiff…

cut 5 (05) “to Louisiana”

He says another bomb threat was called into Pineville High and they are working to determine if Byon could be charged in that one as well.

St. Francis Medical Center in Monroe issued a statement Tuesday saying they plan to cut about 300 jobs. West Monroe Representative Frank Hoffman says the hospital is also considering closing its downtown facility and moving everything to St. Francis North on Highway 165 but there won’t be a final decision on that till the fall. He says it always hurts when you lose jobs…

cut 8 (08) “whole community”

The hospital employs about 2000 workers.

A 12-year-old boy from Pearl River is recovering from a rare alligator attack which took place in Lake Ponchartrain over the weekend. Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries spokesman Bo Boehringer says you should be extra careful if you’re swimming in natural water around a camp or residential development where people may clean or dump fish…:

cut 10 (05) “in a given area”

According to the LDWF Alligator Management Program, this is only the 14th alligator attack since 1966.