Today the original teddy bear, Louisiana’s black bear, will be formally removed from the endangered species list during a press conference at the Tensas National Wildlife Refuge. Halen Doughty has the story…
CUT 1 (31) “I’m Halen Doughty”
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Lawmakers failed to solve the state’s fiscal crisis as there’s still a deficit of 30-million dollars for this fiscal year and a 800-million dollar shortfall for next fiscal year. Jeff Palermo has the story…
Cut 2 (30) “I’m Jeff Palermo”
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Heavy rainfall is likely to continue for the rest of the week throughout the state. Emelie Gunn has more on what we can expect…
Cut 3 (26) “I’m Emelie Gunn”
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The black bear will be formally removed from the endangered species list today at a press conference in Tensas parish. Robert Barham, former Secretary of the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries which oversaw efforts to grow the black bear population, says the black bear was once on the brink of extinction.
cut 4 (09) “at one time”
Barham says the federal government requires that two independent populations be viable enough to sustain themselves for a hundred years in order to be removed from the list. He says they now have those populations in the Atchafalaya basin and the Tensas area.
Cut 5 (10) “is back”
Barham says the number of black bears in Louisiana has gone up due to the efforts of the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.
Cut 6 (03) “bear now”
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Despite a flurry of votes in the final minutes of the special session, including a bill that increases the state’s four-cent sales tax by a penny, the state is still facing a 30-million dollar deficit for this fiscal year and a shortfall that could be as much as 800-million dollars next fiscal year. Democratic Governor John Bel Edwards says lawmakers could have done a better job…
CUT 7 (03) “Louisaina”
Edwards is concerned about the potential for deep budget cuts next fiscal year. Republican House Speaker Taylor Barras says he is also disappointed the legislature could not have done more to close the budget gap, but it’s not easy to vote for higher taxes on individuals and businesses…
Cut 8 (07) “tough votes”
When the special session started three and a half weeks ago, lawmakers were facing a 940-million dollar deficit for this fiscal year and two-billion shortfall for the next fiscal year. For now, legislators were able to pass enough revenue generating bills to stave off deep cuts to colleges and health care services. Barras says many legislators were not comfortable with raising taxes to address the state’s budget problems…
Cut 9 (10) “those passed”
Edwards says another special session is possible in mid-June to address next year’s shortfall, but it would have been better if the legislature addressed the state’s fiscal crisis now…
Cut 10 (09) “before them”
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Heavy rainfall will continue to pound Louisiana today. State Climatologist Barry Keim says a frontal boundary is stuck bringing in moisture from the Gulf of Mexico. He says the northern part of the state was hounded with thunderstorms and floods, but it should shift down into central and southern Louisiana today and Friday.
cut 11 (08) “the state”
Keim says although the storms are shifting, rain can fall anywhere in the state. He says our biggest risk with this weather is flash flooding and river basin flooding.
cut 12 (10) “or two”
Keim says the rain should start to clear west to east on Saturday. But he says many people have St. Patrick’s Day festivities planned in Baton Rouge and New Orleans and the morning forecast is dicey…
Cut 13 (05) “this point”
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Louisiana uses the most “derogatory and prejudiced language” on social media, according to a study by Abodo, which is a rental listing website. Sam Radbil, senior communications manager for Abodo, says they analyzed tweets that contained at least one derogatory word.
Cut 14 (11) “tweets for”
Radbil says they looked at 12 million tweets from June 2014 to December 2015. He says they analyzed language regarding a wide variety of demographics to come up with their list of 154 insulting words.
Cut 15 (12) “overweight people”
Radbil says over 11-hundred tweets out of 100-thousand in Louisiana contained insulting language, and almost 900 in 100-thousand were sexist against women. He says Louisiana came in first on the list overall with the most offensive tweets.
Cut 16 (04) “our study“
Radbil says Nevada and Texas were also in the top three on the list and New Orleans was the number one city for sexist language. New Orleans also had the third highest use of anti-black slurs. Wyoming, Montana and Vermont used the least derogatory language.
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The Louisiana Tech Bulldogs face the Old Dominion Monarchs in their first game of the Conference USA Tournament. LA Tech Radio Announcer Dave Nitz says the Bulldogs will have extra motivation when they face Monarchs as they look to avenge their only home loss of the season.
Cut 17 (17) a little payback”
Tech is led by leading scorer and Conference-USA player of the year Alex Hamilton. Nitz says momentum and the special play of Hamilton gives the Bulldogs a good chance of winning the tournament, regardless of who they face.
Cut 18 (18) “is really the key”