The story about a 3-year-old Brazilian girl who had a large, rare tumor removed from her face by doctors in Shreveport is making national headlines. It all started when Dr. Celso Palmieri at LSU Health Shreveport was reading an online publication from his home country. He says he ran across a Brazlian article about little Melyssa Delgado Braga
CUT 12 (09) “could help Melyssa”
Dr. Palmieri says several organizations and doctors agreed to help the family get here. On December 20th, they removed the 5 pound tumor from Melyssa’s face and she has regained full use of her tongue.

Republican state Representative Franklin Foil says he will try to bring a bill in the upcoming session to raise the TOPS GPA requirement to rein in costs. He says this proposal would make the program more of a merit-based scholarship, like it was intended to be…:
cut 14 (06) “college education”

The American Lung Association’s annual State of Tobacco Control report finds Louisiana is failing in efforts to reduce tobacco use.Regional Policy Director Ashley Lyerly (Liar-lee) says the report assigned F letter grades in the areas like tobacco taxes and access to cessation programs…:
Cut 3 (10) “tobacco use”
An estimated 22-percent of Louisiana adults smoke.

At the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Saints General Manager Mickey Loomis was asked about the reports that they’ve been looking to trade coach Sean Payton…:
cut 30 (15) “…public domain”