On air: U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy appeared via satellite on ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live” Monday after he suggested the Senate’s upcoming health care legislation should have a “Jimmy Kimmel test” of covering pre-existing conditions but in a fiscally conservative way. The Associated Press reports Cassidy said the test “is to say a child born with congenital heart disease is guaranteed to get everything he or she needs in the first year of life.” Last week, Kimmel delivered a tearful monologue describing his newborn son’s life-saving heart surgery, saying lawmakers must help people afford health care. Kimmel said his son and other people with pre-existing conditions would struggle to get insurance under the plan passed by the U.S. House of Representatives. Read more.
Time’s running out: Monday is the deadline in Louisiana for filing 2016 individual income tax returns or requesting an extension, The Associated Press reports. Payments made after Monday are subject to penalties and interest. A special extension until June 30 is available for people whose home, critical tax records or main place of business is in a ZIP code hit by February’s tornadoes. In Livingston Parish, those ZIP codes include 70447, 70454, 70462, 70706 and 70785.
Feeling good: The National Federation of Independent Businesses’ small business optimism index posted another historically high reading in April, but expectations for future business conditions plunged by eight points, a sign that business owners were shaken by Congress’ failure at the end of March to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, also called Obamacare. NFIB says its index dipped 0.2 points to 104.5 in April, the sixth straight month for historically high optimism, a hot streak not seen since 1983. Read more.
