Good budget news for the state has been hard to find, but we found some. Governor John Bel Edwards says the state ended up with a 143-million dollar surplus for the fiscal year that ended June 30th. Edwards says it’s a sign Louisiana’s economy is improving….
cut 6 (08) “….forecasts”
The Edwards administration says the higher than anticipated increase in personal income and sales tax collections created the surplus.

A Fordham Institute Study says public school teachers miss more than 10 days of work much more than charter school teachers. Louisiana Federation of Teachers spokesperson Les Landon says teachers in charter schools tend to be younger and come from the Teach for America Program…
cut 8 (10) “…spouses”

If you’re in Ouachita Parish, you can use Uber today. Monroe Mayor Jamie Mayo thanks the city council and the city’s attorney office for helping to make Uber a reality….
cut 12 (08) “…our citizens”
Mayo says he’s also hoping to work out a deal with Lyft.

A new report from the USDA finds there are over 41 million Americans, including 13 million children, who lived at risk of hunger in 2016. Bread for the World, a movement in the US to end hunger, broke the numbers down by state, and found that Louisiana is the second hungriest in the nation. President David Beckmann says this should be a wake-up call…:
Cut 3 (11) “or eating at all”
Beckmann said the hunger problem in the state is concentrated among African Americans.