More bad budget news for Louisiana. The books are balanced from last fiscal year and the state ended up with a 313-million dollar deficit. That has resulted in the Edwards administration asking state agencies and colleges to prepare for budget cuts of seven to ten percent. Lagging business tax collections is the reason for the deficit and it’s still not clear how state officials will address this shortfall. Dollars from the the rainy day fund might be used to soften the budget cuts.

NOAA issues a report that finds Americans ate nearly a pound more seafood in 2015 than in the previous year. Halen Doughty has more…
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According to the Secretary of State’s office, over 162-thousand people early voted during the first two days of early voting. John Couvillion with JMC Analytics says when you take a closer look at the numbers, it appears a lot of chronic voters went to the polls…
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Early voting continues through November first, except on Sunday.

The Iberville Parish Sheriff’s Office says an arrest has been made in a cold case dating back to 1991. Sheriff Brett Stassi says 61-year-old Tommy Francise of Plaquemine was booked in Lafayette as a fugitive from justice for the murder of a man in 1991 and another in 2002…:
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Stassi says they believe the two victims had done work for Francise and at some point an altercation led to their deaths.