Page 30 - Mark Ballard News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Starting Friday, acupuncture and most cancer treatments will be covered. Jurors will be paid more. But the biggest of the new laws that go into effect on Jan. 1 are the smash of acts aimed, supporters say, at lower automobile insurance rates. They range from limiting access to the courts for individuals claiming injuries to requiring lawyers who advertise to disclose their fees. The first day of the New Year is traditionally when many of the laws passed during the previous legislative session go into effect. After three legislative sessions, 468 bills made it through both chambers and were si...

Local governments brace after being frozen out of Congressional coronavirus relief package Mark Ballard But city and parish governments, suffering from depressed sales taxes and higher expenses, get nothing. Local officials still harbor hopes that Congress will try again soon to help out the entities that hire cops, collect trash, deliver drinking water, and handle sewerage. What they know for certain is that without help, local governments will be laying off employees and ratcheting back services. Some municipalities could face bankruptcy. And, in a top-down state like Louisiana, state go...

LSU’s faculty is considering a resolution asking university officials to require future students, in order to graduate, to successfully complete a course focusing on African American contributions to Louisiana and America. Faculty wishes are routinely ignored by administrators and supervisors at LSU, but this resolution has the support of the provost and system president. Plus, implementing "diversity and inclusion core requirement for all degrees by March 2021” is a check off in the university’s “Diversity & Inclusion Roadmap, 2020-2022.” The recently published roadm...

The legislative auditor says Gov. John Bel Edwards may not be getting complete-enough information on COVID testing to accurately determine the positivity rates used to decide when masks need to be worn, what businesses can open when and visitation to nursing homes. Numbers of positive tests and deaths are not being overreported on the Louisiana Department of Health online COVID dashboard, Auditor Daryl Purpera said Monday. But a substantial number of labs, whose results were tested in September-October, are not submitting how many tests are being taken and are turning in results late, w...

The Lorain Academic Distress Commission welcomed Cel Rivera, Lorain’s retired police chief, to the panel to replace Diane Xander. On Dec. 14, the Lorain Academic Distress Commission held a joint meeting with the Lorain City Schools Board of Education. Much of the meeting dealt with a closed-door executive session for the Commission and school board members to discuss public employees and employment issues. Based on comments afterward, that closed-door session generally dealt with the job performance evaluation of CEO/Superintendent Jeff Graham. - Advertisement - COVID-19 return Graham as...