Permits pulled: Murphy Oil Corp. is set to invest about $2 million to build a new convenience store and gas station at the corner of Scenic Highway and Blount Road. The company pulled the construction permit today to build on the property at 10634 Scenic Highway. According to the permit, construction will include a 3,445-square-foot store, 10 gas pumps and a 6,400-square-foot canopy over the pumps. Murphy Oil Corp. purchased the property, totaling about 1.8 acres, last November for $750,000. At the time of the sale, the property was mostly vacant with a closed car wash. The property sits about one-half mile from where Interstate 110 merges with Scenic Highway.
Open enrollment: The federal health department agreed today to let Louisiana use information collected from food stamp applicants to determine eligibility for the Medicaid expansion coverage. Louisiana residents can begin enrolling in a plan Wednesday, The Associated Press reports. Louisiana will become the 31st state, plus the District of Columbia, to expand the government-financed health insurance program largely to the working poor. New coverage begin July 1. The Medicaid expansion will cover adults ages 19 to 64 with incomes up to 138% of the federal poverty level, about $16,200 for a single adult or $33,400 for a family of four. About 105,000 Louisianans already receiving food stamps are expected to also meet the requirements for health insurance under the Medicaid expansion. Read the full story.
Defiant: The fight over bathroom rights for transgender students escalated in Texas today as the state’s lieutenant governor urged schools to defy the Obama administration while parents of transgender children accused Republican leaders of stoking intolerance and making their kids targets for bullying. Few states are as publicly and persistently pushing back on transgender rights as Texas. Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick pledged at a press conference to support schools that refuse to let transgender students use the bathrooms of their choice. Texas is leading an 11-state lawsuit, that includes Louisiana, accusing the federal government of turning schools into “laboratories for a massive social experiment.” Read the full story.
