The state House approves a bill that would double the fines for a seat belt violation. First offense would be $50 and then it would go to $75 for additional times a motorist is busted not buckled up. New Orleans Representative Walt Leger says this will save lives and dollars…:
CUT 4 (08) “their sea belts”
The measure passed on a 62-34 vote and now moves to the Senate.

The LHSAA is meeting today and talking about the controversial select/non-select split championships in high school football and other sports. There’s a bill before the legislature that aims to put a stop to separating public and private schools. There’s been talk of creating another organization where all schools could compete. But LHSAA past president Todd Guice doesn’t think that would help anything…:
CUT 19 (11) “get there”

The Louisiana National Guard at Camp Minden successfully conducted their first test burn of 88 pounds of M6 propellant. Col. Pete Schneider says over the next 30 days they’ll ramp up different amounts until they reach the full capacity of about 800 pounds. He believes it’ll take about a year to burn all of the propellant that was improperly stored by Explo Systems…:
CUT 6 (07) “M6 free”
Schneider says the burn is environmentally friendly.

Department of Health and Hospitals Secretary Rebekah says the $409 million dollars in cuts they received is forcing them to lay people off, and they can’t take another hit in state general funds. She says DHH has gone from 12-thousand employees in Louisiana to 55-hundred…:
cut 12 (10) “vital facilities”
Four of the ten hospitals for the poor and uninsured in Louisiana are at risk of closing because of critical cuts to DHH.