Public school students will soon be required to learn cursive writing, as a bill has been signed into law that takes effect in July of 2017. Halen Doughty spoke with an LSU English professor on whether this legislation is needed…
CUT 1 (27) “I’m Halen Doughty”
______________________________________
A study from insurancequotes.com finds car insurance premiums for Louisiana parents increase by more than 86-percent when they add a teen driver to their policy. Emelie Gunn has more…
______________________________________
Plans are being drawn up to reconfigure seating in Tiger Stadium to allow visiting bands to perform at halftime shows. Jeff Palermo has the story…
______________________________________________
Teachers in public schools will soon have to teach students cursive writing because of a bill signed into law by the governor. LSU English professor Renee Casbergue says writing in cursive is becoming a lost art, and kids may not have much use for it in the future.
Franklinton Senator Beth Mizell authored the legislation, because she’s concerned children will not be able to sign their name in cursive. But Casbergue says there’s almost no time that people are asked to write in cursive, and in fact many times they are asked specifically to print when handwriting anything.
Casbergue says she wishes the legislature would stay out of managing anything that happens in classrooms. She says as lawmakers keep adding things teachers have to address, it takes away their ability to teach what they think their students need, which is causing them to lose access to arts and other things.
The new law goes into effect in July of 2017.
___________________________________________________
A new study shows that, In Louisiana, parents average premium for car insurance increases by over 86-percent when they add a teen driver to an existing policy. Senior insurance analyst with InsuranceQuotes.com Laura Adams says although it’s still expensive, rates have been dipping slightly. She says this is because many teens are waiting to drive under they’re older….
Adams says the report finds a lot of teens would rather chat with their friends on social media rather than hang out in person, which could lead to less 16-year-olds wanting to get a driver’s license. She says rates do get cheaper as your teen gets older.
Adams says it costs more to add a male teenager than a female to an existing policy. She advises parents to take advantage of every discount available to them.
_______________________________________________
The third installment of the “Ask the Governor” call-in radio show featured a wide variety of questions from callers. Governor John Bel Edwards was asked about everything from food stamps to marijuana and the budget was a key topic. One caller asked about changes to the state’s film tax credit program. Edwards says the state capped the program at 180-million dollars in credits paid out and there are no plans to change it.
Another caller asked whether a gas tax could be imposed to address the state’s budget shortfall. Edwards says he has established a transportation task force that will look into revenue raising measures such as gas taxes, tolls, and other ideas. But he says those dollars will have to go towards transportation.
One caller asked the governor about gun control, in light of the mass shooting in Orlando. Edwards says he is a big supporter of the Second Amendment, but he is in favor of a measure that would prohibit people on terrorist watch lists, who cannot even board planes, from purchasing guns.
The next “Ask the Governor” show will be July 20th.
________________________________________________
LSU says they will now allow visiting bands to perform during halftime, after not allowing them to do so during football games last season. LSU Deputy Athletic Director Eddie Nunez says their plan involves changes to seating in the South End Zone to allow bands to take a more direct route onto the field.
Nunez says there were safety concerns with having two bands along the sidelines before the end of the first half, because having that many additional people on the field could be dangerous. He says they don’t expect many seats to be affected, as they hope to open up access to the field from where the visiting band has always been seated.
Nunez says the LSU Band will also perform first to give the visiting band more time to get down to the field. He says despite what some people may think, they do want visiting bands to be able to perform.
_______________________________________
The Saints have one more mini-day practice today and then they take a break until training camp starts in late July at The Greenbrier in West Virginia. New Orleans linebacker James Laurinatis says it’s been a good offseason as the coaching staff has found ways to make the team better…
Laurintatis is one of the new additions to the Saints defense. Linebacker Nathan Stupar is also new to the defense after spending the last two seasons in Atlanta. Stupar says he’s been impressed with recently acquired linebacker Craig Robertson, who started nine games in Cleveland last season…
Saints running back Mark Ingram is coming off a season where he caught 50 passes and rushed for 769 yards, but his season was cut short, because of a shoulder injury. Ingram says he wants to play all 16 games this year…