ator Bill Cassidy has a new proposal that he says will drive down healthcare prices. Matt Doyle has the story.

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Even though Corvallis is 24-hundred miles away from Baton Rouge, expect to see LSU fans at this weekend’s regional. Jeff Palermo has the story…

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It was a heated night in Senate Revenue as the committee made huge changes to GOP House Chairman Lance Harris’ tax bill. Matt Doyle has the story.

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US Senator Bill Cassidy says just because last year’s Obamacare repeal failed, doesn’t mean he’s going to stop chasing healthcare reform. The Senator has released a plan he says will help expand access and drive down prices. Cassidy says the first step is enforcing price transparency for medical care providers.

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Cassidy says he was recently inspired by a Consumer Reports investigation that had secret shoppers call around for prescription prices, where they found a huge variation in cost.

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Cassidy is optimistic that they can make progress on healthcare reform, in light of the cooperation coming from a bipartisan healthcare panel that’s shown some progress. He says his proposal should have legs.

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The proposal also includes plans to allow insurers to tie prescription costs to international prices, seeks a reduction of hospital monopolies, and calls for an increase to subsidies to young people’s health insurance, as well as allowing employers to not provide health insurance to employees.

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Corvallis, Oregon, is nearly 2500 miles away from Baton Rouge, but you can still expect a good contingent of LSU Fans in attendance for this weekend’s NCAA Regional at Oregon State. Sean Fredenburg with the LSU Alumni Association Portland Chapter says the Fighting Tigers do not play often in the Pacific Northwest but when they do there’s a lot of Purple and Gold…

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Fredenburg says he hasn’t heard of any tailgate parties before the games but if there is a good number of Tiger fans in Corvallis they can make their presence known.

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Fredenburg says that the area provides good food and environment for any fans planning to make the trip, with perfect weather for baseball season

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LSU will face San Diego State to begin the tournament on Friday at 3 P.M.

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A bill requiring public schools to display, and instruct students on the motto “In God We Trust” was signed by the governor after facing little opposition in the legislature. Baton Rouge Representative Regina Barrow says the country is facing a moral crisis related to taking god out of public schools.

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Barrow says she was inspired by the Governor’s prayer breakfast, and that the practice of praying starts off every meeting at the capital.

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The Democrat says religious education and the acknowledgement of god needs to be taking place in public schools, because many parents are choosing not to spread those teachings to their children when they get out of class.

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GOP House Chairman Lance Harris’ tax bill underwent huge changes in a Senate committee. The legislation would now renew one third of the expiring penny sales, but eliminate hundreds of millions in tax deductions that plug the full 648 million dollar budget gap. Harris says his original version that included 283 million in budget cuts was take it or leave it, and the committee decided to leave it.

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