In an effort to reduce employee payroll in the face of budget cuts, Agriculture and Forestry Commissioner Mike Strain is offering employees an early retirement incentive rather than lay off employees. This early retirement incentive is an effort to comply with budget cuts required to balance the state budget. Strain says his department has already seen two mid-year budget cuts…

CUT 12 (06) “second cut”

Strain says a third budget cut is making the early retirement offers necessary.

With 10 days before open enrollment ends, nearly 150,000 Louisianians have signed up for health insurance through the Affordable Care Act, according to the US Department of Health and Human Services. Billy Justice, with Vantage HealthPlan in Monroe, says almost all of the carriers increased their premiums this year and the biggest challenge facing returning consumers is going back to recalculate their subsidy…

cut 4 (08) “paying each month”

Justice encourages people who are in need of health insurance to check out the marketplace.

Noranda Alumina in St. James Parish is asking the state department of environmental quality for permission to release mercury into the air, after learning they may have been doing so without a permit since they began operations in 1959. D-E-Q spokesperson Greg Langley says the refinery could be fined for releasing mercury without a permit…

cut 9 (09) “near future”

He says Norando didn’t know they were releasing mercury into the air so now they are seeking a permit so they can operate legally.

Abita Brewing Co. in Abita Springs has fired back at Budweiser’s Super Bowl commercial which essentially says craft beer is for snobs. The Budweiser commercial says “let them sip their pumpkin peach ale” and Abita President David Blossman responded to that with a video on YouTube bragging about making just such a beer once on a small scale…

cut 7 (09) “to point that out”

Blossman says Abita is proud to fuss over their beer which is a huge part of the culture in Louisiana.