It’s the first week of March, but it feels more like January. Jeff Palermo has more on this artic blast…
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Some felons who’ve been out of jail in Louisiana for at least five years have the right to vote as a result of a law that passed last year. Matt Doyle has more.
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It’s a cold Lundi Gras and temperatures will fall into the low-to-mid 20s tomorrow morning across the northern parishes. National Weather Service forecaster Mario Valverde says we could see record low temperatures…
Valverde says forecast lows along I-10 could also dip below freezing on the morning of Fat Tuesday. He says the wind will die down and clear skies will allow for below freezing temperatures for much of the state…
Valverde says the cold weather is the result of an arctic airmass that’s brought heavy snow to the Midwest and now into the northeast. He says this polar vortex is a reminder Spring officially doesn’t start for another two weeks…
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The Louisiana Board of Regents will award grants to ten college campuses in an effort to reduce textbooks for students. Deputy Commissioner for Strategic Communication Meg Casper Sunstrom says the total amount distributed is $67,500.
Cut 6 (08) “…about 15,000 students.”
Nicholls and Grambling State were two four-year universities to receive the grant money, the rest of the dollars will go towards community college campuses. Casper Sunstrom says text book costs can sometimes be a factor in whether a student is successful in a course.
Cut 7 (12) “…for electronic textbooks.”
Sunstrom says they believe this effort could save more than one-million dollars over three years for 15-thousand students and they plan to track the results…
Cut 8 (11) “…the project continues.”
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An estimated 36,000 convicted felons who’ve been out of jail for at least five years can now register to vote thanks to a state law that went into effect March 1st. To register, an eligible felon must get a certification letter from Probation and Parole. Voters Organized to Educate Director Checo Yancy says it took five years of lobbying, but…
Checo was released from Angola in 2003 after serving 20 years in prison.
The law re-enfranchising those Louisiana felons was passed in last year’s spring session. Yancy says you can’t really be a fully citizen of a nation if you don’t have the right to vote for your representatives.
There’s been a national push to re-enfranchise felons, including an effort in Florida that overwhelmingly passed at the ballot last year.
Some initial estimates put the number of people eligible for the law at 2,000, but advocates say that number is much larger. Yancy says while tens of thousands of people may be newly eligible, they’re still working to get them back into the democratic process.
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32-year-old Tashonty Taylor remains in jail on a 510-thousand dollar bond after New Orleans Police say he plowed into a group of bicyclists on Saturday night, killing two and injuring seven. Detectives suspect Toney was impaired and he’s facing counts of vehicular homicide and several other charges. Loyola University Law Professor Dane Ciolino says Toney faces a lengthy prison sentence
Toney reportedly told police he has a drinking problem. Ciolino says that alleged admission will not result in any leniency, if he’s convicted of the charges…
Cut 13 (08) “…right and wrong”
And Ciolino doesn’t expect Toney to receive any favortism just because he’s the son of a New Orleans police officer. Ciolino predicts a sentence of 5 to 30 years…