President Barack Obama’s approval rating is over 60-percent nationally, according to a CBS poll. Halen Doughty has more on what the numbers look like in Louisiana…

CUT 1 (29) “I’m Halen Doughty”

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2016 was the warmest recorded year on Earth, according to the World Meteorological Organization. Michelle Southern has more…

Cut 2 (27) “I’m Michelle Southern”

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A new poll from CBS finds President Barack Obama’s approval rating is over 60-percent nationally. Local pollster Bernie Pinsonat says while that might be the case nationwide, it’s certainly not true in Louisiana. He says Mr. Obama has been unpopular in the Bayou State throughout his entire term. He says the high favorability rating nationally is likely, because of large states like New York, Illinois and California.

Cut 3 (06) “numbers up”

Mr. Obama is still leaving office with the third highest approval rating since 1981. Pinsonat says it’s not the president himself voters disapprove of, it’s his policies.

cut 4  (10) “very unpopular”

Pinsonat says we’ll see just how much Republicans disapprove of his policies when a decision comes down about whether or not to repeal Obamacare. He says although many Americans are not in favor of Mr. Obama’s policies, for the most part, they like him as a person.

Cut 5  (09)  “give you credit”

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Secretary of State Tom Schedler is asking President-elect Donald Trump to undo President Obama’s designation that all 50 states’ election systems to be considered “critical infrastructure.” Schelder says it’s unclear why a critical classification is necessary, when there was no credible evidence of hacking discovered in any state during the November 2016 election…

Cut 6 (10) “the states”

Dams, nuclear reactors, and government facilities are also included in critical infrastructure. Schedler says the federal government claims considering election systems as critical infrastructure would allow them to work with federal homeland security officials. But he says his office can already do this without this designation….

CUT 7 (10)  “do that” 

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security says the designation does not mean a federal takeover, regulation, oversight or intrusion concerning elections in this country. But Schedler says it’s extremely difficult to manipulate the voting process, because each state uses a different method.

Cut 8 (10) “the election”

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Shreveport Police say an 11-year-old has been arrested for armed robbery. Corporal Marcus Hines says surveillance video shows the juvenile they have in custody pulled a gun on a woman at an ATM around 10 p.m. Saturday and made off with a small amount of cash.

Cut 9 (07)  “the victim”

Hines says it’s very saddening that someone this young would commit a crime like this. Surveillance footage of the incident was released to the public and he says apparently the young boy’s family saw the video, which led to his arrest.

Cut 10 (08) “young man in”

Hines says we have to address the underlying problem in situations like this and find out why someone so young would think to rob someone. He says unfortunately, seeing children commit crimes like armed robbery isn’t as rare as you might think.

cut 11 (09) “into automobiles”

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The World Meteorological Organization announced 2016 was officially the warmest on Earth since 1880, when record keeping began. State Climatologist Barry Keim says we’ve gone three straight years for breaking the warmest year on record. He says there is clearly a pattern of increasing temperatures.

cut 12 (09) “Pacific Ocean” 

Keim says 2016 was Louisiana’s third warmest year on record. The warmest was in 1921. He says the state’s biggest concern with these increased temperatures worldwide is melting glaciers…

Cut 13 (11) “sinking”

Keim says the average temperature in Louisiana for 2016 was 68.7 degrees. And he says 2017 is already off to an extremely warm start.

cut 14 (07) “entire week”

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Attorney General Jeff Landry’s office announces the arrest of six men on over 200 counts of child pornography and exploitation. The alleged perpetrators range from age 18 to 73. A-G spokesperson Ruth Wisher says the men were booked on over 200 counts of child pornography and exploitation…

Cut 15 (11) “sexually abused”

Wisher says Landry was sworn in last year, the A-G’s office has made or assisted in over 100 child exploitation arrests….

Cut 16  (08)  “search of justice”

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State House Republican leaders believe it is not a good idea to use the Rainy Day Fund to offset Louisiana’s 313 million dollar mid-year budget shortfall. Michelle Southern has more…

CUT 1 (31) “I’m Michelle Southern”

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The Guttmacher Institute finds there was an 18-percent decline in the number of abortions in Louisiana between 2011 and 2014. Halen Doughty has more…

Cut 2 (29) “I’m Halen Doughty”

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Despite floods, droughts, and freezing temperatures, experts say Louisiana strawberries are doing just fine. Whitney Wallace with the LSU AgCenter doesn’t think there will be too much damage to this year’s strawberry crop. She says the freeze affected some farmers worse than others, but all in all, it should be a good season.

Cut 3 (07) “March and April”

Wallace says the multiple floods that occurred last spring and August weren’t as devastating to strawberry production as they were to other crops, because farmers weren’t planting strawberries yet when the floods hit. She says many farmers did what they could to protect their blooms from the freeze earlier this month.

cut 4  (09) “below 32”

Wallace says fortunately, most of the strawberry crop made it through the freeze unscathed, which means we should see a good crop in March and April. She says this is great news because strawberry farming is an important industry for the state.

Cut 5  (11)  “local berries”

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Several Republican in the state House say it would be a bad idea to use the Rainy Day Fund to reduce the state’s 313 million dollar mid-year budget deficit. Alexandria Representative Lance Harris, who chairs the House Republican Delegation, says the state has to stop dipping into the Rainy Day Fund every time it has budget troubles.

Cut 6 (07) “problem”

But Commissioner of Administration Jay Dardenne says using the Rainy Day fund is necessary to soften cuts critical services like higher education and healthcare.

CUT 7 (10)  “very painful” 

Harris says when he entered the legislature five years ago, the Rainy Day Fund had over 850 million dollars in it, and today it has 357 million dollars. He says the state has a spending problem.

Cut 8 (08) “concerned about”

It will take a 2/3 vote in both the House and Senate to access money from the Rainy Day Fund. Dardenne says even with the Rainy Day Fund, more cuts will be required. He says this fund is designed to address a situation like the state is currently facing.

Cut 9 (08)  “up for”

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New research finds there was an 18-percent decline in the number of abortions in Louisiana between 2011 and 2014. Guttmacher Institute researcher Rachel Jones says nationally, there was a 12-percent decline over the same period. She credits better use of contraceptives for the decrease in abortions.

Cut 10 (06) “such as an IUD”

The study found there were less than one million abortions in the US in 2014, the lowest rate since the Roe v. Wade ruling. Jones says more effective birth control would explain the decline in states that support abortion rights. She says in some other states, women have less access to abortions than they used to.

cut 11 (08) “in abortions”

Jones says Louisiana was one of the states that experienced a large decline in abortion clinics, with 29-percent of the clinics in the state closing during the time period studied. She says Louisiana also imposed stricter regulations on abortions.

cut 12 (09) “to access abortions” 

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Three people are dead after a fiery crash in Vernon Parish. State Trooper Scott Moreau says around 1:40 a.m. troopers responded to a crash on Highway 1146 near Rosepine. He says there were three people inside a 2009 Chevy Malibu, when the driver apparently veered off the roadway and hit several trees.

Cut 13 (08) “in the vehicle”

Moreau says all three occupants were pronounced dead at the scene. He says it’s not yet known if the occupants were wearing seatbelts or if the driver was intoxicated. He says they are not releasing the suspected identities of the victims, as the investigation is ongoing.

cut 14 (09) “pending as well”

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A 37-year-old Chauvin man has turned himself into State Police for allegedly hitting a man on LA 56 in Terrebonne Parish just after midnight. Trooper Jesse LaGrange says Christopher Little saw the press release put out this morning looking for the driver of a Chrysler 300, responsible for the fatal hit and run of 39-year-old Taylor Thibodeaux.

Cut 15 (10) “way home”

LaGrange says Little’s vehicle had damage consistent with hitting a person and he was brought in for questioning where he was later arrested and charged with felony hit and run driving and improper lane usage. He says the lesson here is to pull over and search if you think you’ve hit something while driving.

Cut 16  (07)  “vehicle received”

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