Can spending time with your kids be considered punishment? One Baton Rouge lawmaker is convinced it can be as Jim Shannon reports.
______________________________________
Target and Walmart are putting more cash in their employees pockets. Jeff Palermo has the story…
Cut 2 (31) “I’m Jeff Palermo”.
_________________________________________________
Baton Rouge Representative Pat Smith wants to send some convicted criminals home if they have kids to take care of. It’s part of a proposed bill that would give judges more flexibility on deciding how to punish parents who have committed non-violent crimes.
The measure is House Bill 264 and is pending in the upcoming regular session. Smith says, if passed, it will be up to district court judges to determine who qualifies
Smith says research has determined that kids who have lost contact with their parents are more likely to cause problems in school or on the streets.
_________________________________________________________
Target and Walmart workers will see more money in their paycheck. Walmart says Associates in Louisiana will receive 13.7 million dollars in bonuses today, while Target announced it’s raising its minimum hourly wage to 12-dollars this spring and 15-dollars by the end of 2020. UNO Business Professor Mark Rosa says this is the effect of the recent federal tax overhaul…
Will higher wages result in higher store prices? Rosa says it’s good to have wage growth, as long as its controlled…
Cut 7 (10) “disproportionately high.”
Rosa says the raises that have been announced by Target and WalMart could cause other private and public employers to look at their pay scale in order to compete in the job market…
_________________________________________________________
The Louisiana Agriculture and Forestry Department is seeking information in finding persons responsible for the death of a cow and three calves. Commissioner Mike Strain says they were killed in a pasture at a levee near Port Barre…
The persons responsible for the cows’ deaths entered the property illegally where state owned cattle are present. Strain says vehicles should not be on the levee…
Anyone with information is urged to contact the Agriculture Department, Livestock Crimestoppers or the St. Landry Parish Sheriff’s Office.
_________________________________________________________
A State Trooper’s kindness has gone viral after finding a wallet on Bourbon Street during Mardi Gras in New Orleans and personally paying to send it back to the owner. Senior Trooper Melissa Matey says Alexandria Master Trooper John Jett was working in the city last month, and found the owner’s wallet still containing money and personal information…
Matey says State Police are well known for keeping the roads throughout the state safe, but they do so much more and Jett exemplified that…
Cut 12 (08) “particular circumstance.”
The Reddit post that the wallet’s owner put online about Trooper Jett’s kindness has been views some 96-thousand times.
_________________________________________________________
The Bonnet Carre Spillway in St. Charles Parish is in operation for the 12th time since the 1930s. Water from the rising Mississippi River is flowing into Lake Pontchartrain, easing the pressure on New Orleans area levees. Colonel Mike Clancy of the Corps New Orleans office says eight of the 350 bays on the flood control structure will be opened today
In 2011, Mississippi River levels were extremely high and another flood control structure in Pointe Coupee Parish was used. Clancy doesn’t think that action will be needed this time…
Cut 14 (10) “Morganza spillway”
The public is allowed to watch how the Bonnet Carre Spillway operates, but Clancy says there are some rules…