LOUISIANA

“For the first time in years, Louisiana’s prison population is starting to decline.” – WAFB

“The budget leaves a big hole for higher education,” Foil, R-Baton Rouge, tells Business Report in the latest cover story. “It is complicated. It calls for getting rid of some things and giving them back somewhere else. There are a lot of contingencies. I don’t know what’s going to happen.” – Baton Rouge Business Report

“State Rep. Mike Johnson, R-Bossier City, is drafting a bill that would prohibit the Louisiana government from denying a license, organizational papers and permits to a business based on the owners’ interpretation of marriage. The legislation may end up applying to local parish and city government as well, but Johnson hadn’t finished drafting it yet, he said.” – NOLA.com

“An attorney for millionaire murder suspect Robert Durst has filed a motion to quash in an Orleans Parish court, claiming the warrant to search Durst’s hotel room was ‘invalid’ and ‘unlawful.'” – WDSU

“More than one in five Louisiana residents report using a drug or medicated substance to alter their mood or relax on a near-daily basis, according to a Gallup poll released Wednesday. Louisiana’s rate of 22.9 percent for daily drug/medication use puts it in the Top 5 states nationally.” – Baton Rouge Advocate

“State Representative Jay Morris, R. Monroe, has filed legislation for the 2015 legislative session to reform the capital outlay process in Louisiana. House Bills 211 and 212 address common concerns and complaints about the process by which the State’s capital spending and construction budgets are implemented as well as executive use of the capital outlay process as a tool to accomplish other objectives.” – MyArkLaMiss

“Salt dome storage space at the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port went for 10 cents a barrel a month during an auction Tuesday. Bidders acquired more than 11 million barrels of storage capacity at LOOP.” – Baton Rouge Advocate

“Louisiana’s personal income growth fell behind the national average last year, according to a study released March 25 by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, a division of the U.S. Department of Commerce. The personal income of Louisiana’s residents was 35th nationally, but in the fourth quarter lagged far behind, falling to last in the nation.” – Lake Charles American Press

“Cox Sports Television delayed the airing of LSU’s game against Louisiana-Lafayette on Tuesday night in the Wally Pontiff Jr. Classic at Zephyr Field, sending Tigers fans into an uproar on social media.” – Baton Rouge Advocate

“The contenders to be Louisiana’s next governor took swipes at the office’s current occupant during a candidate forum Tuesday, criticizing Gov. Bobby Jindal’s financial tactics, his political ambitions and his proposed tax-break rollback.” – Monroe News Star

NATIONAL

“Presidents fail as well when they get stuck and can no longer maneuver, as with Lyndon Johnson on Vietnam, Richard Nixon on Watergate, Jimmy Carter on the hostages in Iran, Ronald Reagan on Iran-Contra, George H.W. Bush on taxes, Bill Clinton on Monica Lewinsky and George W. Bush on Iraq. Now, Hillary Clinton is stuck over her emails.” – Dick Morris/The Hill

“Hillary Clinton’s latest misadventures are not just so typically Clintonian, but more to the point, they reveal a fatal flaw in the woman’s makeup — she has absolutely no judgment! Now you can write off the three current scandals (her private email account use while serving as secretary of state; the foreign donations to the Clinton foundation while also serving in that capacity; and, most recently, her brother Tony and her campaign advisor Terry McAuliffe receiving preferential visa treatment for their friends or clients by the Department of Homeland Security) as just another manifestation of Clinton arrogance. But that would barely scratch the surface as to what it reveals about Hillary.” – American Thinker

“The Washington Examiner is now reporting that Gowdy’s committee has, in fact, ‘formally requested’ that Mrs. Clinton appear for a private, transcribed interview — not compulsory public testimony. It is hard to say what is more disappointing: the chairman’s plan or the instincts and apparent motivation behind it.” – Andrew McCarthy/National Review

“As the world awaits a possible nuclear agreement between the United States and Iran, let us not forget: This is the second time in two years that President Barack Obama has pursued a nonproliferation deal with an unreformed regime in the Middle East. In doing so, he has ignored the regimes’ fundamental nature and the catastrophic costs these efforts have inflicted upon regional stability and U.S. national security.” – Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers/CNN

“With the US on the brink of signing an agreement that will lift the crippling economic sanctions on Iran in exchange for alleged guarantees that Iran will limit its nuclear ambitions to peaceful means, the Observer urges President Obama not to place his personal hunger for a legacy issue ahead of his most solemn duty – protecting America’s national security.” – New York Observer

“The way to extract concessions is not to beg for them. Rather, one obtains concessions, if they are to be had, by demonstrating seriousness. In a case like this, one demonstrates seriousness by adhering to deadlines.” – Power Line

“What is going on in American politics of late? There has not emerged a truly goofball politician since Anthony Weiner, the congressman and later New York mayoral candidate who could not resist sending pictures of his private part so frequently and to so many women, that it really was no longer a private part but rather a public spectacle. Go ahead, Google it. In fact, Yahoo it. My guess is there are dozens of pictures of Weiner’s public private part all over the Internet.” – Bob Tyrrell/American Spectator

“This flagrant abuse of the public trust has not interested the press so much as has the prospect of gay weddings catered by unwilling pizza makers… Of course, I’m serious. Who could make that up? But the fact that Clinton brazenly jeopardized American diplomatic security in service to her all-consuming paranoia and then blatantly lied about her conduct is proving a tad disturbing to some intellectually honest liberals:” – Hot Air

“Hillary Clinton knowingly acted to circumvent the Freedom of Information Act by creating a private email server, according to legal experts.” – Washington Free Beacon

“A fire on a Pemex offshore platform in Mexico’s Bay of Campeche Wednesday killed at least one worker, injured 45 and forced evacuation of 300, according to multiple media reports.” – FuelFix