NASA’s Michoud Assembly Center in New Orleans is slowly ramping up production again after an extended closure due to the pandemic. Matt Doyle has the story.
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Senator Bill Cassidy introduces federal legislation aiming to deliver $500 billion in emergency funding to states and communities with the SMART Act. Kevin Barnhart has the story.
Cut 2 (29) “…I’m Kevin Barnhart”
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A legislative effort to allow all registered voters in the state to vote by mail fails to get out of a House Committee. Matt Doyle has more.
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More workers are returning to NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans to continue building rockets for the Artemis Program, which aims to put the first woman on the moon by 2024.
Michoud Director Robert Champion says some technicians returned Monday after a long hiatus.
Champion says they’ll still be under 25 percent of their full production capacity as they enter NASA’s Stage 3 Return to On-site Work.
Stage 3 of NASA’s plan roughly coincides with the federal government’s Phase One.
Michoud will still have engineers who can work from home continue to do so, but Champion says they’ve found creative ways to make that work…
The decision to return more technicians to the facility was made after NASA officials observed a decrease in COVID numbers across the New Orleans region over a 14-day period.
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Senator Bill Cassidy is one of two lawmakers introducing bipartisan federal legislation aiming to deliver $500 billion in emergency funding to states and communities with the State and Municipality Assistance for Recovery and Transition (SMART) Act. Cassidy says a state’s share of funding in a series of payments is based upon three factors.
Cut 7 (12) “…the financial impact.”
The first payment could go out immediately, the second would go out at the end of June, and the third at the end of the year.
Cassidy says estimates indicate the state’s tax revenue has taken a hit in the range of 42-46% and points to the state’s reliance on tourism as a big contributing element of the revenue shortfall.
Cut 8 (11) “…in Lafayette, etc.”
Cassidy says the President has indicated support for the measure, but there are other hurdles in getting the bill to his desk, adding that the faster the money gets into local and state governments, the better.
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A House committee shoots down a proposal allowing all registered voters in Louisiana to vote by mail.
Vote by mail advocate and recent LSU grad Catherine McKinney says vote by mail is already an option for Louisiana college students…
The legislation would have allowed all voters to request the Secretary of State’s office mail them a ballot. Voters would have to submit their license to file their vote.
The proposal ran into opposition from Republicans like Denham Springs Representative Valarie Hodges who says vote by mail is more prone to fraud than showing up at a booth.
But McKinney countered that actual voter fraud is incredibly rare under all voting systems in the state.
Voters in high-risk groups have expressed fear that polling locations could infect them with COVID, but Hodges says she is confident safety protocols can be written to prevent that.
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Cal-Maine Foods, based out of Pine Grove, donates nearly 600,000 eggs to food banks in Louisiana.
Agriculture Commissioner Mike Strain says Cal-Maine had an excess and wanted to donate it, so they rolled in with two tractor-trailer trucks with 1,560 cases of eggs each in tow…
Strain says that’s 23,400 dozen cartons of eggs.
Cal-Maine General Manager Corey Davis explains how his company came into having so many excess eggs on hand…
Cal-Maine has roughly 40 egg-producing plants nationwide.
Davis says they look forward to distributing the eggs to food banks later this month
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Other than whether there is a season, the big question for the LSU football Tigers is can Myles Brennan lead the Bayou Bengals to another successful season. Offensive Coordinator Steve Ensminger says he’s seen enough from Brennan to have a lot of confidence in him…
Brennan will have two proven receivers to target in the passing game, Ja’Marr Chase and Terrace Marshall Junior. Ensminger says he thinks Racey McMath can have a break out season in 2020 and he likes the speed that a lot of the young receivers have shown…
Cut 18 (26) “…double team Ja’Marr”
LSU will have to rebuild its offensive line as Lloyd Cushenberry, Damien Lewis and Sahdiq Charles were drafted. But Ensminger they have several guys coming back that saw a lot of snaps last year…