An Infrastructure advocate is speaking out against calls for toll roads to pay for infrastructure, instead of raising the gas tax. Matt Doyle has the story.
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30-thousand Louisiana residents have been removed from the Medicaid program because their income is too high. Jeff Palermo has the story…
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Investigators are trying to determine if three church fires in the span of a week, two in St. Landry Parish, the other in Caddo Parish are connected. State Fire Marshal’s spokesperson Ashley Rodrigue says the first blaze caused significant damage and occurred in the early morning hours of March 26th at the St. Mary’s Baptist Church in Port Barre.
Rodrigue says the second fire occurred in the Shreveport area at the Vivian United Pentecostal Church. Investigators say that fire was set intentionally over the weekend and they are on the hunt for a suspect.
Cut 4 (10) “…the public’s assistance.”
Rodrigue says the final fire, the second in St. Landry Parish this week, occurred at the Greater Union Baptist Church in Opelousas. Responders got the call to fully-engulfed church early Tuesday morning.
Cut 5 (11) “…origin and cause.”
Both churches destroyed in St. Landry Parish were historically black Baptist churches.
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The Louisiana Good Roads Association says the state should steer clear of toll roads as a way to raise more funds to build highway projects President Kenneth Perret says toll roads have generated a lot of money in places like Houston, but only because that city has a large population
He says unlike in Florida and Texas, Louisiana generally only has rush hour periods of intense traffic volume. Perret says Louisiana’s congestion problems are not because of abnormally high traffic volume, one that could be effectively tolled, but because the roads and bridges we do have were only designed to last for 20 years…
Perret says tolls in Louisiana only have their place in very specific situations, like high traffic bridges.
This was in response to those who have called for toll roads instead of a proposed increase to the gas tax.
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The Louisiana Department of Health announces 30-thousand individuals have been removed from the Medicaid program, because they make too much money. LDH spokesperson Robert Johannessen says the people that lost their taxpayer funded health insurance are working adults, who have experienced a rise in income
Johannessen says 40-thousand Medicaid enrollees were informed in February they could lose their insurance coverage, unless they could show that they still met the program’s income requirements
Johanessen says the state has a new computer system that can conduct eligibility checks every quarter, instead of every year and it also uses more wage data…
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Motorists traveling on I-10 near Baton Rouge received a surprise this morning when a small plane landed next to the interstate. State Police Trooper Taylor Scrantz says it happened near the Highland Road exit…
The plane reportedly took off from Baton Rouge Regional Airport and it was supposed to land at Louisiana Regional near Donaldsonville. But Scrantz says during the short flight the Piper Cherokee began to experience engine failure…
Scrantz says the plane landed in a grassy area next to the highway, only clipping an 18-wheeler on the way down…