The Revenue Estimating Conference meets today to size up the budget shortfall Louisiana faces this fiscal year and next. Council for a Better Louisiana President Barry Erwin says the falling oil prices aren’t the only reason we’re in this situation but the structure of the budget has never really been repaired since 2008-2009. He says we’ve just been borrowing money from ourselves over and over and then that ran out…

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Erwin says it’s hard to predict how much will be cut this fiscal year.

State Treasurer John Kennedy appears to be considering a run in a few races in this year’s upcoming elections. It’s reported that he hired Virginia-based North Star Opinion Research to poll the races for governor, attorney general, and US Senate. Kennedy says he’s trying to weigh the advice he’s been given and think things through…

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He says he’ll make a decision about his political future soon.

The trial for a man accused of tying up and abandoning a baby pit-bull in October 2013 begins in Caddo District Court today, and many angry citizens are expected to be in attendance. Michelle Southern reports…

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State Police say an Oak Grove man is dead after a single vehicle crash on I-20 in Richland Parish. They say 70-year-old Jerry Ratcliff was traveling west when, for unknown reasons, his truck traveled off the highway and struck a tree. Ratcliff, who was not wearing a seat belt, was pronounced dead at the scene.