Livingston Parish is coming back to life two years after the 2016 August flood left much of the parish under water. Kevin Barnhart has the story.

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Louisiana libraries are offering extended tutoring time for students with an online service supported by the state. Matt Doyle has more.

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A 400-pound life-sized bronze human statue along the Mississippi River in Baton Rouge has been found in a nearby parking lot after it went missing. Kevin Barnhart has the details…

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It’s been two years since the devastating August 2016 flood that destroyed over 8 billion dollars in property and claimed 13 lives across south Louisiana. The floods led to billions of dollars in federal assistance, including hundreds of millions to help victims rebuild their homes. Livingston Parish President Layton Ricks says the recovery is about 85 percent complete.

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The flood impacted 15 schools across Livingston parish, delaying school years and putting children at risk of missing crucial educational days. Ricks says two years later, thirteen of those schools have been fully repaired.

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The hundred year flood was enough to convince the feds that the area was in desperate need of flood control projects, many of which had been delayed for decades. A 1.5 billion dollar package was approved that will target issues across southern Louisiana, including the Comite River diversion, which Ricks says will relieve some of the drainage pressure on Livingston Parish.

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The state’s online tutoring service, homeworkla.org, is expanding hours and adding additional features that includes live tutoring, test prep, class help and even job search assistance. Louisiana’s Head Librarian Rebecca Hamilton says its academic assistance for anyone.

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You can access the services online at home with a library card number, or in person at your local library, Sunday through Thursday from 2PM to midnight in both English and Spanish, and even offers assistance in Vietnamese from 6 to 9PM.

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The service provides online tutoring, as well as self-study tools, AP video lessons, and practice prep for standardized tests among other services.

The upgraded service comes in the wake of reports that libraries are seeing an uptick in usage, specifically from millennials. Hamilton says making after school tutoring services available regardless of socio-economic background has had a big impact.

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The demand for used cars is growing and so are the prices. Cox Automotive reports a three-percent increase last month compared to July 2017 and overall used vehicle values rose five-percent last month compared to the previous July. President of the Louisiana Automobile Dealers Association Will Green says many people are buying cars that were once leased.

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Green says that’s because leases have become more common over the last three to five years, leading to higher end, lower mileage cars available used as customers end their leases without purchasing.

But he says it’s not just leases behind the surge in national prices. Green says recent natural disasters, and the mass of vehicles destroyed by them, have led to a greater demand.

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But he cautions that just because national prices have surged upwards, it doesn’t mean that we’re seeing as much of a hike in Louisiana. He says the state’s slower economic growth resulting from the depression of the oil industry is keeping used car prices lower here than the rest of the nation.

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A 400-pound life-sized bronze human statue has been found. It’s part of a 22-piece traveling art exhibit on display along the Mississippi River in Baton Rouge. President of the Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge, Renee Chatelain, says they were preparing to ship the exhibit to Centenary College in Shreveport, when they noticed the bolted down statue was gone.

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The statue was recovered with gold spray paint on it in a nearby parking lot. Chatalain says despite the incident, they hope these type of art displays keep coming to the capital city

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Chatalain says the statue was recently located, covered in graffiti, and adds whoever moved the thing, sure put in some effort.

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The defense outplayed the offense at LSU’s first scrimmage of fall camp. Head Coach Ed Orgeron says several players stood out on Saturday in Tiger Stadium…

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Orgeron says the offense made way too many mistakes, too many penalties, especially off sides calls. He says the offensive line particular was not good. Meanwhile, Coach O says the quarterback battle remains a tight one…

Cut 17 (13)  “close call”