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Friday, November 20, 2009
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LEGISLATURE & POLITICS
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The state agriculture department should have nearly all of $44.5 million in disaster recovery grants and loans in farmers’ hands by Christmas, the head of the agency told legislators Thursday.
The state Department of Education is so bureaucratic and unresponsive to children that it needs to be overhauled from top to bottom, a member of the state’s top school board said Thursday. State officials on Thursday nixed a push to hold a property tax election the day after Christmas for a St. Tammany Parish fire district. Members of the state Bond Commission weren’t swayed by a parish official’s offer to severely punish the fire chief for forgetting to schedule the election earlier. The oversight prompted the plea for an emergency election. The state is paying twice for the education of students who go into the juvenile justice system, state officials said Wednesday. It’s a matter of money following students, said Barry Erwin, chairman of an advisory committee that brought the recommendation to the Commission on Streamlining Government. A member of a cost-cutting group demanded to know Wednesday whether state officials hid how much money they spend on contracts with private firms. Gov. Bobby Jindal traveled to Austin, Texas, on Wednesday for the Republican Governors’ Association’s annual conference. Jindal participated in a panel discussion in which he voiced concerns about health-care reform efforts in Washington, D.C., The Associated Press said. WASHINGTON — With the U.S. House approving a health-care plan, all the attention now turns to the U.S. Senate where U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu is considered one of five votes that could make or break the effort. The Commission on Streamlining Government on Tuesday called for a new “independent” study of all the options for providing an academic medical center in New Orleans. The vote followed testimony by historic preservationists who favor building a new hospital inside the shell of the 1930s vintage Charity Hospital instead of construction of a new $1.2 billion complex on another site. State Rep. Patricia Smith has scheduled a Thursday town hall meeting for Baton Rouge House District 67 constituents. |
