In last night’s Senate debate, both Democratic US-Senator Mary Landrieu and Republican Congressman Bill Cassidy brought out the big guns. Landrieu continues to come under fire for using tax payer money to fund personal campaign charter flights. She calls the matter a bookkeeping error that has been paid back and is a much smaller issue than Cassidy’s alleged double subsidies from the LSU Health Sciences Center…

cut 11 (08) “doctor for himself”

Cassidy says Landrieu’s charter flight situation was against the law and also violated a strict code of Senate ethics. He says what he does is help the poor and uninsured…

cut 13 (09) “who did that benefit”

Louisiana’s Senate runoff election is Saturday.

Analysts are reporting there’s a chance gas prices could drop below $2 a gallon in Louisiana. Gasbuddy-dot-com’s Gregg Laskoski says, in light of recent events, he could see some station’s price dropping below $2, but is skeptical that the statewide average will drop that low…

cut 4 (11) “a gallon”

He says OPEC’s announcement that they would not reduce their oil output saw crude oil prices fall below $70 per barrel.

But the current oil price is not good for the state’s budget. Chief economist for the Louisiana Fiscal office, Greg Albrecht, says if oil prices keep trading for about 70-dollars a barrel for a lengthy period of time, it will cost the state millions of dollars in revenues…

cut 15 (10) “revenue flow”

He says if oil prices don’t rebound, state leaders will have to reduce future spending even more.