This article was produced for ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network in partnership with WRKF and WWNO, and it was also co-published with The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate. 

As plans for a potential return of Mardi Gras 2022 ramp up, Mayor LaToya Cantrell said she is interested in mandating a proof-of-vaccination requirement for passengers arriving in Louis Armstrong International Airport for the last two weeks of Carnival season — an idea that some state tourism officials hope doesn’t materialize.

STATE SURPLUS & FEDERAL DOLLARS-  The state of Louisiana has a $1 billion dollar budget surplus and another billion dollars in remaining American Rescue Plan funds.  This news was shared by Commissioner of Administration Jay Dardenne,  the top official at the Louisiana Division of Administration, the management arm of the state government and agency responsible for developing the state’s annual budget.

An industrial gas provider is moving to Ascension Parish with plans to build a $4.5 billion clean energy facility, Louisiana officials announced Thursday.

Air Products, the company responsible for the project, will create 170 direct jobs with an average salary of $93,000, more than 400 indirect jobs in the region and more than 2,000 construction jobs over the three years it will take to build the facility near the community of Burnside. The project is expected to be operational in 2026.

Former President Bill Clinton, who has been hospitalized at the University of California Irvine Medical Center for a "non-Covid-related infection," is expected to be discharged on Sunday, his spokesperson said Saturday afternoon.

"President Clinton has continued to make excellent progress over the last 24 hours," Angel Ureña said in a statement released on Twitter.