By Greg LaRose | Editor-in-Chief
Good Monday morning. Let’s start your workweek with a look into why there’s a fuss among rural healthcare providers.
Wichayada Suwanachun/Getty Images
By Julie O’Donoghue
A new state law increase Medicaid reimbursements rates this year and again next year for independently owned rural healthcare clinics. Not everyone is happy about the change. Rural hospital owners did not receive the same rate increase for the clinics they own. All providers are watching their Medicaid dollars closely as cutbacks for the program loom in President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
Sen. Blake Miguez accompanied by wife Ashley and daughters Julianna, 11, and Eleanor, 1, after he qualified Friday for the 6th Congressional District race. (Piper Hutchinson/LAI)
By Piper Hutchinson
President Donald Trump endorsed state Sen. Bluke Miguez’s bid for Congress when he was running in the old 5th District, but it’s not clear whether the president still stands by that decision, especially now that Miguez has become a candidate in a different district. There’s also an entrant into the new 5th District race with close ties to Gov. Jeff Landry.
In case you zoned out over all three days of election qualifying last week, I’ve recapped the highlights in the Instagram video below.
Students walk down the hall at a public elementary school. The Trump administration has given states more flexibility in spending some federal dollars. (Nuria Martinez-Keel/Oklahoma Voice)
By Robbie Sequeira
The Trump administration is increasing its efforts to turn more control of federal education money to the states as it continues working to dismantle the Education Department. Louisiana is one of six states have received waivers allowing them to consolidate more than $109 million in federal education funding and bypass certain requirements for local education agencies. Louisiana is also one of the states that can now waive certain federal education requirements for school districts without seeking separate permission from the Department of Education each time.
By Piper Hutchinson
LSU System President Wade Rousse has announced members of the committee that will select the next LSU New Orleans chancellor by the end of the year. The search committee will get its first look at the applicant pool later this month.
By Elise Plunk
Louisiana is in the middle of its extreme heat season, and the state health department advises people more vulnerable to heat-related illnesses — such as adults 65 and older, children and those on medications that affect heat tolerance — to take steps to reduce their risk. Despite the trend of decrease health-related deaths in Louisiana , there is still cause for concern.
NEWS FROM THE STATES
Lawmakers blame data loss for farmers’ long-delayed disaster payments | Georgia Recorder
Prison operator handling ICE work reports 27% revenue bump | Tennessee Lookout
Hemp businesses ask judge to block new THC cap | Virginia Mercury
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