Done deal: The city of New Orleans has accepted $45 million from BP to compensate for damages from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. As The Associated Press reports, Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s office announced in a news release Thursday the money will be used for “resilience initiatives, including water management and coastal and ecosystem restoration.” Local governments around the region have been taking action as part of a proposed $18.7 billion settlement the oil company agreed to pay Louisiana and four other states as a result of the disaster. Louisiana’s share could total $6.8 billion. The Baton Rouge Metro Council is set to take up its settlement at a special meeting scheduled for Wednesday of next week. See the full agenda.
Going up: Students attending South Louisiana Community College in Lafayette will pay 10% more in tuition this fall, but won’t immediately pay additional fee increases that were permitted under recent legislative action. Bryan Glatter, vice chancellor of administration and finance, tells The Advertiser the Louisiana Community and Technical College System approved the tuition hike on June 30. The increase was permitted under the GRAD Act, passed in 2010, which permits campuses to raise tuition if they meet certain goals. Glatter says all schools in the LCTCS system raised their tuition by the same 10%, which he says will bring their tuition into line with other two-year schools in the Southeast. The increase means full-time students will see tuition increase from $1,489.78 a semester to about $1,652. The LCTCS declined to immediately impose fee increases on its students, which were permitted under Act 377, passed by the 2015 Legislature as House Bill 152 and signed by the governor last week. Read the full story.
At the podium: Seeking traction for his presidential campaign, Gov. Bobby Jindal boasted to anti-abortion activists Thursday that he leads the “most pro-life state” in the country, and sought to position himself as a warrior for conservative Christians. The Associated Press reports Jindal’s speech at the National Right to Life Convention, which is being held in New Orleans through Sunday, comes as he tries to separate himself among more than a dozen Republican White House hopefuls who also describe themselves as social conservatives. “The left wants to take God out of the public square,” Jindal told delegates after linking Supreme Court’s recent decision legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide to the 1973 Roe v. Wade case that legalized abortion nationally. Read the full story.
