Clydesdales from Pearl River in St. Tammany Parish will be featured in Budweiser’s Super Bowl commercial. Halen Doughty has more…
CUT 1 (30) “I’m Halen Doughty”
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It’s expected Governor Edwards will issue today the call for a budget re-balancing special session to begin on February 13th. Emelie Gunn has more…
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A grand jury has indicted the man accused of fatally shooting former-NFL star Joe McKnight on a charge of second-degree murder. Jeff Palermo has more…
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Patterson in St. Mary Parish is the safest city in Louisiana, according to Value Penguin’s 2016 Safest Places in Louisiana. Harahan, St. Gabriel, Mandeville, and Minden round out the top 5 on the list. Associate Editor Andrew Pentis says it’s not a surprise towns ranked better than big cities.
cut 4 (07) “maintaining safety”
Minden was the largest city in the top 5, with a population just shy of 13-thousand. All of the top 5 cities had populations up to 15-thousand. Gretna, Zachary, Kenner, Slidell, and Houma were ranked the safest large cities.
Pentis says they looked at data from FBI crime report and graded cities based on how many crimes were reported for a year. He says they are broken down into property crime and violent crime.
Cut 5 (11) “property crime can”
Pentis says this is the second year in a row Patterson tops their list.
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Louisiana Clydesdales will be in a Budweiser Super Bowl Commercial. Clay Harper of Pearl River owns the soon-to-be-famous horses. He says it all started when he got a call from a producer looking for Clydesdales near New Orleans for a commercial.
Budweiser’s signature Clydesdales cameo will be seen by millions this weekend just before the 40-second mark of the 60-second spot. Harper says they filmed the ad several weeks ago in various locations in the Big Easy.
Harper says people would stop and watch them go by, and some even came over for a photo op. He says the horses were great during filming, but he had to make sure they had plenty of hay and water.
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Governor John Bel Edwards is expected to issue the call for a rebalancing the budget special session that would begin February 13th. Jeremy Alford of LaPolitics.com says lawmakers have to address a 304 million dollar budget deficit for the fiscal year ending June 30th and Edwards will push the use of 119 million dollars from Rainy Day Fund to offset that shortfall.
Edwards has said he will allow legislators to propose higher taxes and fees during this special session but he will not recommend any himself. He says the other items in the call will allow legislators to make cuts throughout the budget.
Alford says Republican lawmakers will likely propose large cuts to the state health department after a recent audit found the state agency has mismanaged millions of dollars.
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The man accused of killing former-NFL player Joe McKnight has been indicted for second-degree murder. 54-year-old Ronald Gasser was originally arrested for manslaughter on December 5, four days after the apparent road rage incident in Terrytown. Jefferson Parish Sheriff Newell Normand says the upgraded charge comes after the grand jury looked at all of the evidence.
Legal analyst Tim Meche says it’s not surprising the grand jury upgraded the charge, but it’s bad news for the defendant. He says while manslaughter carries a sentence up to 40 years, if convicted of second degree murder, Gasser will serve life.
Meche says from here Gasser will be given an arraignment date where he will enter a plea, and then they’ll set a motion date and a trial date. He says once Gasser goes before the grand jury, the verdict will come down to one key point.
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Three players who have strong ties to Louisiana will find out Saturday night if they’ve been elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Former Saints kicker Morten Andersen and ex-LSU standouts Alan Faneca and Kevin Mawae (Muh-why) are among the 15 finalists for the Class of 2017. NFL analyst Mike Detillier believes this Andersen’s best chance to get in
Andersen is the NFL’s all-time scoring leader with over 25-hundred points and he’s the only player to lead two franchises in scoring, the Saints and the Atlanta Falcons. Mawae and Faneca had long careers in the NFL as offensive linemen, but Detllier believes Faneca has a better chance to get into the Hall, than Mawae
Faneca is a six-time first-team All-Pro selection and helped Pittsburgh win a Super Bowl in 2006. Out of the 15 finalists, Detillier believes former San Diego running back LaDainian Tomlinson is the lone lock to make the hall of fame…