Lawmakers gave final legislative approval today to a bill that redirects 700-million dollars in BP oil settlement money for road improvement projects around the state.
Final legislative approval came on Monday for a measure to give a pay raise of $1000 to teachers, $500 to school support workers, and $39 million in block grant funding for school districts. President of the Louisiana Association of Educators Debbie Meaux believes more money will come in time.
Cut 8 (08) “…find that money.”
The pay raises plus additional funding will cost the state an extra 140 million dollars a year. The raise is the first for Louisiana teachers in ten years, but it does not bring their salary up to the Southern Regional Average
President Donald Trump approves the state’s request for federal assistance to help rebuild public property and infrastructure from the EF-3 tornado that hit Ruston in April. Ruston Mayor Ronny Walker says over five-hundred structures were damaged in Ruston and about one-hundred of them were totaled. He says the other issue they are dealing with his fraudulent contractors…
Walker says most of their expenses are from repairing the city’s electrical grid and fiber system, plus debris removal.
25-year-old Christopher O’Neal Houston Jr. of Campti remains in police custody without bond, accused of strangling death of his wife 22-year-old Elonzeya Teal-Houston, who was five months pregnant. Natchitoches Parish Sheriff’s Captain Tony Moran says the murder has impacted the investigators as well as the community.