Updates needed: Gov. John Bel Edwards’ administration told lawmakers that a computer upgrade will address concerns that the state Medicaid program has paid millions on people not eligible for the coverage. The Legislature’s joint budget committee today approved the contract extension for the upgraded system. The legislative auditor’s office released an audit this week that said Louisiana’s Medicaid expansion program may have spent as much as $85M on ineligible enrollees. Auditors suggested more double-checking of Medicaid recipients’ income. Read the full story.
Good enough: Louisiana can continue to enforce an age limit of 21 for erotic dancers in bars and nightclubs, a federal appeals court panel ruled earlier today, reversing an prior decision and rejecting the argument that state law is too vague about how much of a dancer’s breasts and buttocks must be covered. The abrupt reversal by the three-judge 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel was a sudden defeat for three young women who said the law had cost them the lucrative income they had as strip club dancers and unconstitutionally squelched their First Amendment rights to freedom of expression. Read the full story.
Hotel schmotel: Airbnb had its best quarter ever, even as cities across the U.S. have started clamping down on the short-term rental market. Revenue during the third quarter breezed past the $1 billion level as guest reservations boomed internationally in places like Beijing, Mexico City and Birmingham, England, the San Francisco company announced today. Airbnb’s growth has drawn the ire of the hotel industry and communities in the U.S. and abroad, where locals are uneasy with the constant turnaround of guests in their neighborhoods and apartment buildings. Read the full story.
