To close a budget deficit for this fiscal year, Governor John Bel Edwards has announced a 70-million dollar reduction in state funds for the state department of health and hospitals. Edwards says 40-million of that is lower than projected Medicaid expenditures and efficiencies his administration put in place when he took office…
cut 7 (11) “…to our people”
Colleges and universities avoided the budget ax for at least the next three months.

Jefferson Parish Sheriff deputies are still trying to determine why 73-year-old John Thomas of Kenner fatally shot a 75-year-old urologist while he was treating a patient near the East Jefferson General Hospital. Authorities say Thomas took his own life at a nearby fast food restaurant. Thomas did not have a prior criminal history.

Because of the flooding, hundreds of Louisiana residents will spend this Easter weekend out of their homes. Mike Steele, with the governor’s office of homeland security and emergency preparedness, says if the water has gone down, you don’t have to wait on a FEMA inspector to begin repairs…
cut 30 (10) “…assessment teams”
Steele also advises people to document and take pictures of damage to their homes.

Louisiana may have to relinquish control of state museums over to local agencies due to money concerns. Secretary of State Tom Schedler says his budget has taken a massive hit amid the fiscal crisis….
Cut 9 (05) “proposed scenario”
Schedler says there’s legislation moving through that would allow local governments to run several musuems like the Germantown Colony Musuem in Minden and the Chennault Musuem in Monroe.