President Donald Trump will speak at the American Farm Bureau Convention in New Orleans later today. Rice and soybean farmers say the tariffs and now the government shutdown have hurt their ability to make money off their crop. Political analyst Bernie Pinsonat says despite the tariff issues, he expects the crowd to welcome the President.
Cut 13 (12) “…hurting some farmers.”
And the President arrives in the Big Easy with no end in sight to the longest federal government shutdown in U-S history. It has reached 23 days.

The president’s visit to New Orleans will cause traffic problems. Air Force One arrives at 10:30 AM. I-10 from the airport to the Morial Convention Center will close for the presidential motorcade. The president is scheduled to speak at 11:40 AM and I-10 will be closed again for the motorcade back to the airport. But Big Easy motorists should be in a good mood after the Saints 20-14 victory over the Eagles to advance to the NFC title game.

A report from Rockefeller Institute of Government finds that Louisiana gets back a $1.52 in federal dollars for every one dollar of taxes paid to the federal government. It resulted in about a 17-billion dollar net gain in federal dollars for Louisiana in 2017…
cut 5 (10) “…two programs”
That’s the director of the fiscal analysis Laura Schultz.

58-year-old Eric Prudholm spent his first weekend as a free man since he was 21-year-old. Prudholm was released from Angola last week after his conviction for an aggravated rape and armed robbery that happened in Bossier City in 1981 was vacated. Innocence Project New Orleans Executive Director Jee Park says new DNA evidence was the key and the lesson learned from this case….
cut 11 (07) “…decades from now”
Park says Prudholm will look for a job in the food service industry.