Night clubs in Louisiana will soon be prohibited from hiring strippers who are under the age of 21 because of a bill signed into law. Halen Doughty has more…
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Governor John Bel Edwards responds to the planned visit by Florida Governor Rick Scott to Louisiana in job recruitment efforts. Michelle Southern reports…:
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US Senator David Vitter has joined 44 other Senators in an attempt to block implementation of the Obama Administration’s overtime rule, which doubles the salary threshold under which employees qualify for overtime pay. Vitter says this will drastically impact small businesses, particularly in Louisiana, as well as employees.
Vitter says there is a motion of disapproval making its way through the Senate that would block the implementation of this rule. He says this is another example of executive overreach by the Obama Administration. He says the salary increase is far too drastic for businesses.
The current rule says employees who make less than $23,660 can qualify for overtime if they work more than 40 hours. The proposed rule increases the salary threshold to $47,476. Supporters say this rule will put more money into the pockets of low and middle-income workers. But Vitter says the overtime rule is actually a bad thing for American workers.
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Beginning August 1, establishments in Louisiana can no longer hire strippers that are under the age of 21, under a law signed by Governor Edwards. Senior Vice President for Gulf Coast Bank and foster parent, Kim Carver, says this legislation is important because girls who age out of foster programs are at risk of becoming victims of sex trafficking, especially if they go to work in strip clubs.
Jim Kelly with the Covenant House in New Orleans also supports the new law. He says a lot of the girls that come to Covenant House were strippers or victims of sex trafficking. He says if a girl has to be 21 to drink in an establishment, she should have to be 21 to take her clothes off in that same establishment.
Robert Waters owns Rick’s Cabaret in New Orleans opposes this new law. He says not everyone who works in the adult entertainment industry is a victim. He says many of the dancers in his club do so for good reasons.
Waters says he doesn’t know if this law will do any good, but he does know it will hurt a lot of people. He says there are dancers who depend on the money they make by dancing to support themselves.
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Florida Governor Rick Scott says he’s coming to Louisiana to encourage businesses here to move to the Sunshine State. In a statement, Scott said Governor John Bel Edwards called the special session for the sole purpose of raising taxes which will burden the job climate here. Edwards’ spokesman Richard Carbo…:
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Carbo says Governor Scott and former Governor Bobby Jindal are one in the same and come with policies that put Louisiana’s budget in the mess that it’s in now. He says this isn’t the first time Scott has been on these job hunting missions and the move is purely political…:
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Carbo says the governor inherited from Jindal a budget with a $2 billion dollar hole, and right now Edwards is focused on putting Louisiana back on a path to prosperity. He says Louisianans will look past this maneuver by Scott…:
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The mayor of St. Joseph is at the center of a criminal investigation by Louisiana State Police. Earlier this year a legislative auditor accused Mayor Ed Brown of mismanaging St. Joe’s finances, and the auditor outlined several possible crimes he may have committed. But Trooper Michael Reichardt says Brown has not been arrested yet.
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The water in the small Tensas parish town has been murky brown for nearly a decade, and state funds were appropriated to repair the water system. But because of Brown’s failure to submit the required audits, the town cannot access the money. Reichardt says it could be a lengthy investigation.
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A judge has stripped Brown of the authority to make financial decisions and appointed a fiscal manager for St. Joe. Reichardt says he can’t say much about the case yet, as the investigation in ongoing.
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